According to the Washington Independent, expanded Medicaid coverage of birth control may be pulled out of the proposed stimulus package. House leaders say that the Obama administration has requested that the Democrats take out the family planning section, which would have allowed states to provide birth control for low-income people under Medicaid, without having to ask the federal government for permission, which is how it stands now.
Anti-choice groups had a field day when it was first announced that this was part of the stimulus package. Already angry about the overturning of the global gag rule (booya!), Republicans are up in arms about this 'funding of the abortion industry.' They are arguing that the provision would not stimulate the economy; it was just a hand-out to Planned Parenthood, thanking them for their support of Obama. However, Democrats argue that this would help shore up the Medicaid program as well as create new health-care jobs, and the Congressional Budget Office (a non-partisan entity) stated that it would save money in the long run.
A decision is supposed to be announced tomorrow, so we'll just have to wait and see.
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