As a pro-life advocate, I absolutely detest abortion—and I don’t want a dime of my money going to pay for it. It’s galling to me that we consistently give Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the state’s largest abortion provider, $2 million a year of our taxpayer money. I don’t care how they say they segregate the money and don’t use it for abortion-related activities. If it doesn’t go directly for such activities, it is giving serious help to an organization that makes money off killing babies. It’s that simple. Now, unfortunately, we may be in a situation that makes that $2 million a year look like chump change.

A couple of weeks ago on this commentary, I discussed “Healthy Wisconsin,” the state budget amendment passed by the Senate Democrats that would essentially provide universal healthcare to all of Wisconsin’s citizens—using our taxpayer money. We talked about the various pros and cons of the plan. However, one issue we didn’t discuss was that this plan could, and likely would, provide state funds—that would be your money and my money—to pay for the abortion of any Wisconsin woman, anytime, anywhere.

Some of you might remember that we have a state law that prohibits tax dollars from being used to pay for most abortions. Section 20.927 of the Wisconsin statutes states that, “no funds of this state…or of any subdivision or agency of this state or of any county, city, village or town and no federal funds passing through the state treasury shall be authorized for or paid to a physician or surgeon or a hospital, clinic or other medical facility for the performance of an abortion.”

To most of us this language is pretty clear. The law says no state funds—that would be, taxpayer money—could be used to pay for an abortion. It seems logical, then, to assume that there is no way that the proposed “Healthy Wisconsin” program could allow for the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortion. However, that’s apparently not the case—and we really shouldn’t be surprised. Once again, we’re reaping what we’ve sown.

In 1995 Wisconsin’s then-Attorney General, current Governor James Doyle, issued an opinion regarding how the statute I just cited relates to the state funds—again, that’s taxpayer money—that are used by the Group Insurance Board to provide government employees with health insurance. Doyle wrote, “It is my opinion that monies used to fund state employee insurance plans are not ‘state or local funds’ and that, therefore, the Group Insurance Board is not subject to the limitation of section 20.927 when establishing and contracting for state and local employee health insurance plans.”

Unbelievable! The legislature passes and the governor signs into law very clear language that prohibits taxpayer money from paying for most abortions in this state, and the then-attorney general arrogantly says, that when it comes to health-care plans for state and local employees, the law doesn’t apply.

Oh, really? Since when does any unit of government have money that isn’t taxpayer money? The answer is, never! It doesn’t matter what level or what branch or what agency of government you’re talking about: it’s all taxpayer money.

Consider what every proponent of the “Healthy Wisconsin” proposal says is the goal of this plan—and that is to give every Wisconsin citizen the same health plan offered to state and local employees. In essence, then, Doyle’s opinion that money used by the Group Insurance Board is not taxpayer money, would cover the taxpayer money used by the Healthy Wisconsin Authority, a group similar to the Group Insurance Board.

Although our friends at Wisconsin Right to Life, who have been leading the charge statewide on this issue, asked the Senate Democrats to make sure that “Healthy Wisconsin” included language that clearly indicated that section 20.927 applied to the proposal, the plan passed the Senate with no restriction or clarification. And that means that it is now up to the budget conference committee members to ensure that Wisconsin taxpayers don’t have to fund the murder of unborn children.

The budget the Conference Committee eventually ends up with will be an up or down vote in the Senate and the Assembly. No amendments can be offered. This means that the Conference Committee is the last place where adjustments and clarification can be made to “Healthy Wisconsin,” should it become part of the budget. At this point the three Democrats and one Republican from the Senate, and three Republicans and one Democrat from the Assembly have not discussed the healthcare plan. But that could happen any day.

If “Healthy Wisconsin” becomes law as it is currently written, there is a great possibility that considerably more than $2 million of our taxpayer dollars—euphemistically called “state funds”—could be used to pay for the abortions of any Wisconsin woman. That means that despite the fact that polls show between 60% and 70% of Wisconsin’s citizens do not want taxpayer money funding abortions, all of Wisconsin’s citizens will in effect be paying for the murder of our unborn children. Wisconsin Family Council joins Wisconsin Right To Life in saying, for us, that’s absolutely unacceptable.

For Wisconsin Family Council, I’m Julaine Appling reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”