Did Rauner flip-flop on Medicaid abortions?

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 8:03 am by Jane the Actuary

Did Rauner flip-flop on Medicaid abortions? 2017-04-26T08:03:17-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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On the Democrats’ party platform this summer: the elimination of the Hyde Amendment and the full funding of abortion by the federal government under any circumstance when it would otherwise fund healthcare/pregnancy-related medical treatments.

In Illinois: the Democrats, who control the House and Senate, have passed a bill which removes existing restrictions on coverage of elective abortion by Medicaid and state employees’ health insurance plans. Pro-choice-ish Republican Governor Bruce Rauner has said he’ll veto the bill.

And everyone’s falling to pieces.

Specifically, Rauner campaigned with a message to voters that he had no interest in social issues, and told voters that he’d fix the economy and the Illinois budget, but wouldn’t change the status quo on such topics as abortion, gay marriage, etc. And that seemed to suit Illinois voters just fine.

But now the Democrats and the abortion-rights activists are calling him all the usual names (anti-woman!) with a twisted logic that says that he denying women their “reproductive rights” if he dares the bill.

It’s extremism. And what’s worse, the reporting on the issue takes the activists’ claims, that he’s somehow flip-flopping in his refusal to expand abortion in this manner, at face value.

Here’s today’s Tribune:

Indeed, abortion rights groups were quick to deem Rauner’s opposition a betrayal of voters who previously supported Rauner, noting he frequently declared he had “no social agenda” while on the campaign trail in 2014. Political action group Personal PAC took the rare step of releasing a previously confidential candidate questionnaire from that race in which Rauner expressed support for the ideas contained in the legislation he now opposes.

Rauner, who was away from the Capitol to tour a Beer Nuts plant in Bloomington, has declined to explain his shifting position, saying that expanding taxpayer funding for abortions is a “very divisive issue.”

Now, there is a bit more to the story: it seems that Rauner, in a bid to placate the abortion-rights lobby, filled out a questionnaire in April 2014 for the group Personal PAC, per another recent article:

“I dislike the Illinois law that restricts abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan and state employees’ health insurance because I believe it unfairly restricts access based on income. I would support a legislative effort to reverse that law,” Rauner wrote in answer to the April 2014 questionnaire.

Rauner also checked “yes” boxes on questions about whether he would sign bills to maintain the legality of abortion in the event of a U.S. Supreme court reversal of its landmark 1973 decision as well as legislation about lifting Medicaid and state-employee insurance restrictions.

Does that mean he’s a flip-flopper? I’d never heard of this questionnaire before.

What does Rauner truly believe?

I suspect he simply doesn’t care, that he has no personal “moral compass” telling him to believe one thing or another on the issue.

In April 2014, he thought currying the favor of this group would help him; very shortly after that or perhaps even simultaneously, he pledged to voters, repeatedly, in an effort to placate both pro-choice and pro-life groups, that he would follow no particular agenda regarding abortion. Which means that the action most in keeping with his campaign promise is a veto.

Image: Bruce Rauner, in his trademark plaid, at the local July 4th parade. Own image.

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