Parnell on right track with veto of Denali KidCare budget increase

Legally, abortion in the United States is a matter choice. Whatever political or moral debates surrounding the practice, it’s a legal choice available to women and teens.

In Alaska, debate is growing over how the state financially subsidizes this choice. Gov. Sean Parnell’s recent veto of a requested $2.9 million increase for Denali KidCare, the state’s health care program for teens and children from low-income families, has sparked a rash of politically motivated criticism. Because Denali KidCare’s program also includes funding abortions in cases deemed “medically necessary,” Parnell is accused of letting his anti-abortion politics get in the way of funding for needed medical care.

Parnell deserves credit for not kowtowing to those who would use women and their unborn children as political pawns. In fact, Parnell did nothing to cut any funds from Denali KidCare; rather, he simply said no to the program’s requested budget increase without knowing whether these funds would be used to expand the program’s funding of abortions.

This is the rub.

Whether women should or should not have the right to choose to have an abortion is an argument for another time. What is prime for debate, however, is to what extent Alaska residents should pay for abortions to be performed. In the case of Denali KidCare, they’re supposedly done only if deemed “medically necessary.”

The problem here is there’s no accountability to just what qualifies as “medically necessary.” It’s a totally subjective decision left to medical professionals. Of course, there are obvious cases where the mother’s life may be in jeopardy. But what if a doctor were to see that a pregnancy was overwhelming a teen mother emotionally? Does that rise to the level “medically necessary” to terminate it?

Until there’s more meat to the state’s definition of “medically necessary,” we agree with Parnell’s message that no more funds than already allocated should go to a program that has so little accountability in this area. If lawmakers and those in the state’s social services and health fields want all of us to pick up the tab for performing “medically necessary” abortions, there needs to be an application and independent review process to document the “medically necessary” terms that make it so. This would also hold accountable doctors who may be more sympathetic toward performing abortions outside the “medically necessary” criteria.

There are certainly occasions where a person in the Denali KidCare program would legitimately qualify for a “medically necessary” abortion. We, and Governor Parnell, suspect many of those procedures don’t meet that standard. Those women absolutely have the right to choose, but it must honestly and legitimately be “medically necessary” when it comes to spending the public’s money to subsidize this choice.