Press Release

Insurance for Fetuses or Insurance Against Abortion Rights?

Contact Information
Tony Hileman, Executive Director

(Washington D.C. - February 4, 2002) President George W. Bush's statement last week declaring that an embryo or fetus should have health insurance coverage separate from the mother is an obvious ploy to enact non-consensus, sectarian moral views into law. The American Humanist Association (AHA) is concerned about the justifications for this initiative and its ramifications on reproductive rights.

President Bush is effectively challenging the Supreme Court's precedent on the point of viability of a fetus by saying that "personhood" begins at conception. Bush sets the stage to reduce a woman's rights, and potentially her well-being, for the sake of even a one-cell zygote.

Furthermore, his proposal to allocate $33 million to encourage teen abstinence at the expense of sex education ignores the reality of sexually active American teens. It is unrealistic and morally paternalistic to expect abstinence to be completely effective. Responsible education is needed.

AHA executive director Tony Hileman said, "This is an initiative in service to a personal, religious agenda, not public safety and health. If those were the focuses the allocation of funds would go toward safe sex education and prenatal care, not the unrealistic and potentially harmful abstinence and carry-to-term endorsements."

In his State of the Union address, President Bush expressed pride in the partial liberation of women in Afghanistan. In announcing this initiative later that same week, he contradictorily attempted to limit women's rights in America.

AHA president Edd Doerr notes, " This is a sneaky way for the administration to mask a moral judgment. Needed health care expansion should be provided to the only "person" in a position to make sound judgments, the mother - not the fetus."

The AHA, since its inception, has been a proponent of reproductive rights and worked together with other prominent organizations and leaders in founding both the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).

The American Humanist Association (www.americanhumanist.org) is the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the nation. The AHA is dedicated to ensuring a voice for those with a positive outlook, based on reason and experience, which embraces all of humanity.