According to USA Today, Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, plans to expand its abortion coverage for employees. Despite the media buzz, the announcement is misleading. In a memo sent to Walmart staff on Friday, the company said that its health care plans will now cover induced abortions for employees “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability.”
The Associated Press viewed a copy of Walmart’s previous benefits plan which already stated that induced abortion would be covered in cases “when the health of the mother would be in danger if the fetus were carried to term, the fetus could not survive the birthing process, or death would be imminent after birth.” The new additions to the plan would, therefore, include induced abortion for ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, rape, or incest.
But there are some obvious problems with this.
Ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage
Procedures to properly care for women who are experiencing an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage are not induced abortions and would be covered by an insurance plan that includes maternity care. An induced abortion, legally speaking, is the intentional killing of a preborn child at any stage of development. During an ectopic pregnancy, the mother’s life is at serious and imminent risk. Surgery to remove the child will save her life, but her baby will not survive because he or she is too young. This is not legally considered an abortion because the child is not actively killed but tragically dies as a result of the treatment.
Likewise, procedures such as a D&C to remove a deceased embryo or fetus from the uterus along with the placenta following a miscarriage is not an induced abortion (but is often classified medically as a “spontaneous abortion,” which can lead to confusion). Clearly, if the goal of an induced abortion is to ensure the child is dead, then treatment to remove an already-deceased child is not an induced abortion.
READ: UNCOVERED: Four-pronged strategy deployed to protect the abortion industry
Rape and incest
Human beings conceived as a result of rape or incest are innocent; it is the rapist who should face penalties.
Abortion following sexual abuse does not heal a woman or girl from the abuse she endured. Rather, it adds an additional trauma to her life that can cause her to suffer from depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. This is not health care.
Health of the mother
Walmart’s health insurance plans had already covered abortion in cases in which the mother’s health is at risk, so this is not a new development. However, it’s important to note that there are life-saving options that do not involve intentionally killing a preborn child when a mother’s life or health is at risk.
Instead of actively killing the preborn baby prior to delivery, a doctor can deliver the child alive and, when possible, attempt to save the child’s life as well. A preterm delivery or an emergency C-section, even when the child is too young to survive outside the womb, is not an induced abortion and would be covered under a woman’s maternity health plan.
Fetal diagnosis
It is discriminatory and eugenic to decide that a child should die because he or she is deemed unhealthy or his or her life has been labeled as unworthy.
The idea of fetal “viability” is arbitrary. Every living human being is viable because they are alive and in their natural environment — this includes any and every living preborn human no matter the stage of her development. Killing a human being because he doesn’t meet certain arbitrary standards is unjust.
Walmart seems to have jumped on the virtue-signaling bandwagon by announcing it will update its health plans to cover abortion — and pretending that certain pregnancy procedures are induced abortions when they aren’t.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!
