YOUR COMMENTS

Instead of the tax payers paying for abortions, let the unwanted babies be adopted by DCYF's list of couples waiting for newborn babies, instead of stealing unabused newborn's from families. DCYF will still be able to make money off the children they sell and families won't be falsely accused of abuse and neglect.
- Hope, Concord

As abortion is legal, put your own money where your mouth is and pay for it yourself, instead of using OPM. "Pro-Choice" is very narrowly defined by the left, and doesn't extend to free Americans choosing and paying for their own healthcare, does it?
- Mae, Plaistow

@Art in Portsmouth. Wrong Art. Conservatives believe the parents should take care of the children after they are born. Novel idea to socialists like yourself who just ship off your children to the public schools and let someone else do the work. Real parents home-school their children.
- David, Bedford

so does this mean that if abortion is against my religion that I don't have to pay my taxes to support it? Or do I loose that religious freedom too? Why aren't they paying for lap band surgery for obese people or rehab clinics for drug abusers? seems only fair that the state should pick up for all of our mistakes.
- tracy, manchester

Wow Bob in Deerfield,
A vast worldwide old boys network and price fixing system? A global oligarchy? That is one big ole conspiracy theory there. I suppose its all organized by Jewish bankers?

Actually Bob in Deerfield,
Most countries (except the Chinese) have these things called anti-trust laws and anti-racketeering laws that force businesses (by that I of course mean greedy rich Republicanics, Democrats get all their money from selling lemonade in roadside stands) to compete with each other. But if you have better info, by all means put in a complaint to the US attorney general. Mr. Holder is a leftist too, so he'll love to hear from you.
- Jim, Manchester

Shaheen as Governor screwed up the state of NH, now she want's to put a hand in at screwing up the whole country!
- Sheila, Nashua

Ask yourself who wants to control your body? your thoughts? your financial future? All this blather about libertarian "freedom." Republicanics have arranged the economy to make you a wage slave. Your wages have been flat for 30 years - theirs have gone through the roof. The conservative nanny state is all around you. Do we allow anyone to compete with the rich? Not a chance. M.D.s, lawyers, stock brokers, patents, copyrights, none of that stuff is available to the global economy. Only the working man, the one with dirt under his fingernails is required to compete with the $.50 a week Chinese worker. The rest is just an old boys (white) Republicanic network of old school ties and oligarchy. When was the last time you were allowed to buy into an Initial Public Offering? Your mortgage, your car payment, your healthcare - all that is decided by the K street looting party which has been duping you through this newspaper and Faux Noise to make you think you have anything to say about anything. Good Luck.
- Bob, Deerfield

L Morrison in Bethlehem,
This is obviously not JUST a women's health issue. What about the health and life issues between a fetus and his/her health care provider? Who are you or I to determine which babies should live, and which ones should be scrambled like eggs in the uterus or maybe have their brains sucked out?

The sheer thoughtless arrogance to pretend this is a one sided issue!

Yes, people have a right to privacy. But women waive that right when they choose toe allow a man to invade their privacy thru intercourse and the associated risk of pregnancy. Want privacy against an invasion by fetus? Don’t have sex.

If a person murdered another in the privacy of his/her own home would the police have no right to investigate? Would it be an invasion of privacy to discuss what went on in that house in a court room? Of course not. Why should feticide inside a body be treated any differently?

P.S. Yes I have thought about how to reduce murder. Teach moderation, sobriety and anti-drunkenness. Alcohol causes some murders and many accidents and is a gateway drug to narcotics. Narcotics cause more murders.
- Jim, Manchester

J.Lyman, If you support abortion, then you support the war against anyone that is not Blue eyed and Blond hair. Google Margerette Sanger. Try to get a little history on abortion. PS. the woman that was used to push abortion is now against it. "Row" .
- Jane, Manchester

Touche for Jeanne! This is a women's health issue that should be between her and her health care provider. Who are you or I to determine what is best for a woman's emotional and physical well being?
And for the high and mighty males here that feel this is a form of murder...did you know that in the US 93% of all murders of any kind are committed by males? I surely do not enjoy paying for their arrests, court costs, incarcerations, their health care while incarcerated, and sometimes thier deaths. Have you ever thought about how to reduce these numbers of murderers? Probably not.
- L Morrison, Bethlehem

I have 2 words for Shaheen, "Black Genocide". And she's all about it. Shame on you!
- Rich, Manchester

Charlie in Manchester,

Yes I am against taxes since I am part of the minority of Americans that actually pay them. Less than 50% of Americans pay a net tax to the federal government.

No orphanages are necesary. As I stated before, If you can't afford to feed yourself you can not realistically afford to have a child. If you do choose to have a baby, then it is YOUR responsibility to take care of them. A state supported orphanage is just another form of shared responsibility. And Shared responsibility is another euphamism for socialism.

You be responsible for you and I will be responsible for me. If you want to spend your money on orphanages or abortion that is your choice to do so.
- Michael Layon, Derry

Art in Portsmouth,
Do you actually beleive your baloney?

For one thing conservatives do vote to fund programs for children and for another, it does not take a socialist village: Believe it or not, some people who actually work for a living actually provide schooling, health care, food, medicine and vaccines for their own children, while trying to get around the government interference.
- Jim, Manchester

Everyone argues here and we all mean well. But it is especially fun here every once in a while to read a totally over the top fruitcake rant making no sense, but none the less telling everyone else how to live, usually with poor spelling to boot.

Thanks, "Jan, of Londonderry NH," for filling that bill! For your tortured extrapolation of a woman's right to choose as lost taxpayers, you are the fruitcake of the day! I needed that chuckle!

Go Pats!
- Valerie, Manchester

Wow Kat in Raymond!

"Making abortion available to the low income woman saves the tax payer in the long run. Forget about the disputed morality of the issue and do the math."

And after that you can sell your soul to the devil for a couple more bucks!

Find yourself a morality 101 class! There are several running every Sunday morning from 10 to noon throughout the city.
- Jim, Manchester

"Abortion is murder" is just an empty epithet thrown around by the fringe right, who probably feel so guilty about events like Iraq they need to call some else a murderer. The 75% of sensible Americans who agree a woman has her rights are all murderer, sure. Lol.

But lets say for fun abortion is murder, so where are all the full equipped, funded and staffed orphanages paid for and run by all these name calling hypocrites in order to "save babies?" Oh, pardon me, they only do name calling, no spending, that would be a tax. They're against taxes too.
- Charlie, Newport

Do the math...abortion was justified on 500 annually but stated as 1,000 plus annually. Now there are over 1.1 million abortions annually in the U.S.A. If the 48 million plus babies were alive today, a large percentage would be tax payers. With their tax dollars and competent congressional represenatives and governmental administrators, we just might have a solvent social security system. The number of abortions have gone up not down when we allowed genoicde of fetsuses because we liberalized sexual behaviors. Recently NH libaeralized deviant sexual behavior--by this same formuale in fifty years or less we will be Sodom and Gomorrah. Also, many who have the aborations have had more than one. The information and cost figures are out there. I know a few who have had one to multi abortions--months to years later many need physological counseling. When they do carry a child to term--they realize what they did and have many regrets. Also, the risk of breast cancer and other illnesses increase from the aborton surgery. So costs go up and on... do some research and you will see this is not a business the USA government and your tax dollars should be supporting. When a government pays for aboraitons it is population control by all of our tax dollars.
- Jan, Londonderry, NH

Ah, yes. Once again, Republicans only care about children _before_they are born.

Once they are born, they are on their own. No school funding. No health care. No FDA. No vaccines.

You people really are something.
- Art, Portsmouth

So, Doris, Manch, what about the father's "choice" or should I say the lack there of in your scenario? Why are we always trying to downplay the importance of a father's role in a child's life...now even before they're born.

Well, it used to take two to tango anyway when we didn't live in a flippin' looney toon society.
- judy, bradford

I can tell you, if I believed there were murders going on all day at a health clinic, I'd get my butt off the coach and go stop it not spend all day tossing online insults. But not the "pro-life" crowd, they just want to stop OTHER people from exercising their rights. Pretty lame if you ask me.
- Phil, Manchester

Kat, Sorry, but there's no such thing as an "unwanted baby" as I guarantee you there's many people out there who want a baby but aren't able to reproduce and would love to adopt.

Also, there are privately funded agencies who are more than willing to help pregnant woman with expenses if they choose adoption so the state doesn't have to pay anything.

Free birth control is available, too, if you really want it.

Jay, yes, it's the parents' responsibility to educate their own children about sex, etc. The schools have become indoctrination centers instead of learning institutions focused on the old three R's.

Abortion is still murder of the completely helpless and woman who have one pay life-long consequences...they may just not know about it yet. Just ask a woman who's had one years later what she's experienced in her spirit, soul & body. While in full time ministry years ago, I saw the devastation that taking an innocent life eventually creates...maybe more people need to experience the aftermath of what seems like the smart and easy decision at the time.
- judy, bradford

Abortion = Killing a Baby. Plain and simple. The truth hurts ... some more than others.
- David, Bedford

So much goes into the debate on abortion. Consider that this is just a single issue in what medical procedures will be deemed worthy of payment. Imagine other procedures such as surgeries being voted upon not by your physician(s), but by your legislators. This IS the first debate on rationing.

For the record the far left has leabeled me and others who are sick of being taxed to death racists. I find it ironic that these same people are ardent supporters of funding abortion, which is the sickest form of racism I can think of. 90% of reported abortions in the US are performed on blacks.
Abortions may be medically necesary in very limited circumstances, but abortions as a form of birth control are never a medical necessity. Kat from Rayomond raised the issue that abortions will save money in the long run. So killing to save money is OK? How about saving money by eliminating welfare and cutting off illegal immigration? If you can't afford to feed yourself then you can not afford to have a child. If you get pregnant, it is through your own choices and the responsibility is yours, not a "shared responsibility"
- Michael Layon, Derry

"This is how pro-abortion politicians deceitfully explain the Hyde amendment. It does not ban abortion funding for low-income women. Low income women may obtain abortions and finance them in any number of ways."

Pro-abortion advocates like Shaheen are not interested in the truth. They are only interested in increasing the number of abortions performed in NH and spreading their culture of infanticide.
- John S., Nashua, NH

As a taxpayer, I agree with Shaheen, our tax dollars should cover abortions for women who want one. It's a great idea in fact.

1. It's a right of privacy issue for women and nobody's, including the disgusting (savings & loan scandal, Iran Contra defender, extramarital affairs, useless Clinton impeachment leader - go look it up,) Henry Hyde's, business.

2. It is absolutely cost effective to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and to terminate those that can legally be terminated.

3. Keep your, "it's murdering of babies" baloney rant whining to yourselves!

Knucklehead "pro-lifers!" Sure, except after they are born, or if they are of a different religious belief, dark-skinned, and foreign. Pro lifers against a public option in health care are the consummate hypocrites.
- Ellen, Newbury

So does "free* health care for all" extend to the baby living within the mother, or does the buck stop there? More liberal hypocrisy from pro-culture-of-death extremists.

Looking forward to 11/2/10.
- Mike, Temple

Doesn’t the NH taxpayer fund the Doctor visits and hospital expense of the unwanted birth? What about the cost of WIC, welfare and NH Healthy Kids for all of these unwanted babies. Making abortion available to the low income woman saves the tax payer in the long run. Forget about the disputed morality of the issue and do the math.
- Kat, Raymond

To J.Lyman
Paying for a war you don't believe in is one of the few things the government should be allowed to tax us for. A war by the way that democrats and republicans alike both voted for,which yes has now been screwed up by two administrations.So you're for killing the innocent unborn,what will it take for you to realize there are those who want all of us dead!
- Bob, Bedford

How about this suggestion for reducing the number of abortions and lowering the cost of "health care" for our downtrodden souls who have no time to work, but find the time to continually reproduce.

First we get some of those plastic ties and lash their legs together at the ankles. If that doesn't work, then we cut all additional benefits for additional children, provide them with a mandatory drug test as a prerequisite for being on welfare?

As a society we continue to enable our weak and lazy by giving them everything, including access to free abortion, more money and benefits when they have more children that they can't raise and won't take care of.

Abortion is wrong. Period. It should be banned and if a woman does not want the child or cannot afford him/her , perhaps they can give birth and give the child up for adoption.
- Melvin, Keene

We can certainly call the issue about birth control instead of abortion, Judy. But not when the government mandates abstinence-only education. If the government does not allow adequate sex education and access to contraceptives, then women have every right to an abortion.

Personally, the government should NOT be involved in any of these issues from abortion to healthcare to sex education to birth control. These are services that can be obtained without government interference. My body, my choice.
- Jay, Nashua

So "pro-choice" means strangers have to pay for it! Neither this nor "diversity" nor "for the children" nor "Save the planet!" is descriptive of anything; it is a manipulative slogan.

Shaheen writes, "Bans on abortion funding for low-income women are discriminatory." This means that any denial of government money, any policy banning payments to black OR white women, is a racial policy if its effect is not equal across races? To be against total socialism is to be a racist? We have tried in the past to equalize racial outcomes--most famously with the "affordable housing" craze that led to the meltdown of 2008.

Why would I write a constituent letter to someone who treats not just constituents but reason and words themselves with such contempt? Her criterion is not what makes sense but what fattens the public sector and buys her and her party permanent power.
- Spike, Brentwood NH

It was okay for the National Republican Committee to pay for elective abortions since Reagan was president - including, no doubt, using the donor money from duped Union Leader readers, and probably their staff too.

When I get an itemized list on my taxes of things I can cross off - you know, like Stealth Bombers - then I'll worry about the 10 cents on planned parenthood my taxes subsidize.

The Union Leader works on one thing - fear, anger and resentment. They need that for anybody to pay attention to them.
- NSR, Epping, Nh

Abortion is a woman's choice and not anyone else's. If we taught everyone about the responsible use of birth control utilizing abortions in a manner that may be considered frivolous would likely not happen.
Abortion is a difficult and personal decision that is really not anyone's business, certainly not all of the critics on this site.
Just another crazed Union Leader editorial. Stir the pot and blurr the real issue of health care.
- Doris, Manchester

J. Lyman -- Interesting, but imperfect analogy. Are you suggesting a ban on federal funding of national defense?
- John, Manchester

So we can’t disturb the spotted owl’s home. But we can murder an unborn child. Welcome to the bizarro world of liberalism. This truly must be the end times.
- Jeff, Nashua

Wait a minute! You mean they are going to start using tax dollars for some things people do not personally agree with??!!!? When did this start happening?? This is an outrage!
- GIna, Derry

I agree with Judy and Deb & I applaud their willingness to voice their opinion. Abortion is not about a woman's right to choose when someone else is paying for it. What is wrong with this picture? Judy is right, have the child and give it up for a adoption - be respnsible, or if you do not wish to have children, see a Dr. and have a procedure to assure you will not bear children.
- Chris, concord

Hey Lyman, why don't you move out of the country then. We overthrew an terrible dictator in Iraq and his own people executed him for his crimes and now we are onto the place the terrorists are actually trained. I guess 911 is just a fantasy or maybe you are one of the nuts who believe the US is actually behind it!
- Jeff, Manchester

I'm not exactly a fan of taxpayer funded anything these days. Anyone who thinks they have right to steal what I earn needs to get voted out.
- Jonathan, Bedford

Where is there any surprize here? There are only two freedoms the democrats support, the freedom to marry if you are gay (I actually support that) and the freedom to have someone else pay for you to murder your baby just because it isn't born yet. I am opposed to that. In almost every other aspect of life that I can think of the democrats want to tell you how to behave. I believe eventually the left will be telling us when to have abortions to, but they can't quite swing that yet.
- Jeff, Goffstown

Another Headline could have been:

Abortion Extremism: Union Leader falls on far right.
- Frank, York Me

Abortion is not about women’s rights if all your neighbors have to pay for it with their taxes. The freedom we all share is a responsibility and if someone freely chooses to be sexually active the outcome is their responsibility.

Liberalism of the far left dictates it is a right to turn a living fetus into scrambled eggs from ones own free choice and careless behavior, but a murderer can not receive the death penalty because it’s a barbaric practice. It's like the inmates are running the insane asylum.

Yes that is just my opinion. One I am not allowed to force on anyone else. Yet those who want abortion tied in with health care have little problem trying to force me to pay for it. But then this could all be a ruse so we get national health care and the so called conservatives can claim they stepped in and stopped abortions from being included like fake hero’s coming to the rescue.
- Deb, Derry

I'm "paying" for a war I don't believe in.
- J. Lyman, Manchester

Is anyone surprised at Shaheen's stance? Not me. Six months ago, when asked if the "new" Healthcare bill would fund abortions, Shaheen and Shea-Porter both emphatically denied it would. Now, both are praising it as a necessay step to fund low-cost insurance for women. What a surprise!!! Seriously, are these two representing NH? NO. Did either of them actually read this legislation? NO. They are puppets to Pelosi and the other ultra left wing nuts. They are both an embarassment to our state and need to go.
- William, Dover

Since when did killing the unborn become a health care issue instead of what it really is; i.e., about birth control or should I say lack there of.

Since reliable birth control in many forms is readily available to any woman or man, why should we taxpayers pay for any abortion because of stupid people especially since many of us completely disagree with the completely erroneous phrase of a "woman's right to choose" and see it for exactly what it is and that is more accurately "a woman's right to commit murder" of the completely helpless human being?

Just ask yourself this question...if a human embryo is not aborted, what's born? Here's a clue for those of you who insist on denial (unwilling to accept truth), it ain't a chicken.

The "woman's right to choose" is really about selfishness and not being inconvenienced and uncomfortable for a few months out of a lifespan of 80-90? years. Try adoption if you just can't keep your own offspring. There's plenty of desparate, loving people looking to adopt. This is another failure of the PC generation calling things what they're NOT!
- judy, bradford

Why shouldn't abortions be covered? If the government is providing health care for all, having any procedure performed on our dime should be as easy as obtaining welfare.
- Frank, Manchester

It is so vitally important for you to understand, Jeanne Shaheen knows what’s best for everyone. It makes no difference what religion you are, (unless it's Muslim) it makes no difference what color skin you have (unless you're a minority) the bottom line is she and her colleagues just intrinsically know what's best for everyone. To attempt at persuading them otherwise is folly. You might as well have tried to tell Albert Einstein that 2 + 2 really = 5.

It’s also very important to remember that these people were not voted into office to follow the will of the people. They were voted into office with the express purpose of imposing their beliefs on everyone. I mean, why else would they have been voted in so overwhelmingly? They know better than you do, right?
- CD, Manchester

She never was a moderate. All of the NH Democrats are far lefties, so much so they have become socialists.
- Bob, Salem