Breakdown of Author's Argument in Abortion Editorial

This editorial piece argues that the new Health Care Reform bill must not put restrictions on abortions. The main argument here is that if health care becomes funded by the government then the government should not be allowed to put any restrictions on what health procedures may or may not be performed, especially abortions. To defend this argument the writer attacks the argument of the opposing side.

The article first opens by accusing the opposing side of contradicting itself. It states that critics of the plan claim that they do not want the government to step in between doctors and patients in deciding what are necessary health care procedures. However, the critics themselves are doing just that by not wanting abortions included in federally sponsored health care plans.

Next, the writer appeals to pity by talking about how these unfair restrictions on health care would affect low-income women. The author states that if the government left out abortion from the new health care reform bill that these women would have to scrounge around for enough money to pay for an abortion themselves which could lead to riskier abortions because of the time it would take to get this money.

After this, the author offers different solutions that would compromise with both sides. These are not solutions the author has thought of by his or herself, rather these are solutions that have been proposed by different authority figures. The solutions include things such as each state offering two separate health care plans: one that covers abortion and one that does not. This would happen by getting money from other sources to pay for the plans which include the abortion coverage. That way they would not technically be funded by government subsidies.

The next strategy the author uses to attack the opposing argument is to tear down the solutions offered by the other side which suggests selling abortion coverage separately as a “rider”. The author uses a common sense approach to show how obviously flawed this idea is because no one plans to have an abortion and therefore would not likely buy it separately.

Lastly, the editorial concludes with the writer restating their original argument that there can be no restrictions put on the new health care reform.