UNC Students Subsidize Abortion Through Mandated Health Coverage.

Students for Life of America has learned that health insurance offered to UNC System students, who are now required to have health insurance as a condition of enrollment, covers elective abortions.  The health insurance plan offered through the university for those students who do not have health insurance otherwise is through Pearce & Pearce.

The UNC System adopted the requirement that all students must have health insurance last March.  As though mandating that individuals purchase health insurance, which will apply to all Americans in the near future thanks to President Obama’s Health Care bill, was not an egregious enough offense to our liberty, students who purchase health insurance through Pearce & Pearce will now subsidize their fellow students’ elective abortions.

Many students, pro-life students especially, cannot morally justify purchasing insurance that will effectively subsidize elective abortions.  Given the mandate, health coverage requirements should be minimal and students should, at the very least, be able to opt out of elective abortion coverage if they purchase the student plan.  Abortion is an issue that elicits deep and emotional responses from pro-life and pro-choice groups alike.  Thus it should be treated cautiously; it is unfortunate that it has not been.

Remember that one of the contentious issues that nearly scuttled Obamacare was public funding for abortion.  Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) was at the center of the debate, refusing to vote in favor of the bill if it did not explicitly forbid public funding for abortion.  Later, Rep. Stupak caved but the issue was center-stage for a time.