So often abortion conversations turn into useless quasi philosophical naval gazings amounting to debating how many angels can dance on the head of pin. The reality is women need to have access to abortion and only a woman and her health care provider should be involved in the equation.

This story from the Washington Post is sad reminder of that fact.

D.J. Feldman was 11 weeks pregnant last year when she learned that her child had anencephaly, a fetal defect that left the baby with almost no brain. It is always fatal.

Feldman, a 41-year-old federal lawyer, and her husband had been trying for two years to have a baby. Sadly, her doctor “made it very clear I wasn’t to continue this pregnancy,” she said.

An abortion was medically necessary. She had little choice.

But after the jolt of the diagnosis and the emotional pain of the procedure, Feldman was in for another shock — sticker shock. She thought her health insurance policy through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) would cover the $9,000 cost of the abortion. It didn’t.

For Feldman, unlike many women who have abortion insurance coverage through private-sector employers, abortion coverage provided through her employer — the U.S. government — is illegal. The law says that “no funds . . . shall be available to pay for an abortion” under FEHBP. Exceptions are made for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest, or that endanger the mother’s life.

snip

Feldman’s health was in jeopardy. The minority of babies with anencephaly that are carried to term — dying shortly after birth — cause complications such as “dysfunctional labor and postpartum hemorrhage, which can increase the risk for the mother,” Feldman’s doctor wrote in a letter to her insurance company.

The doctor warned that the complications for a woman of Feldman’s maternal age from giving birth to a child with anencephaly “are especially serious . . . and could be life threatening.”

Despite the doctor’s plea, the Office of Personnel Management refused to make Blue Cross/Blue Shield pay.

This couple wanted children. Yet the current defaulting to the pro-liers helped to create a situation where this woman’s ability to have more children was comprised. That her life was also comprised obviously is of no consequence to the babies for Jesus crowd.

It is entirely unacceptable that such an important and necessary medical procedure is sacrificed on the alter of politics.