Maureen Britell, the wife of a military officer, was expecting her second child. During a routine ultrasound her doctor discovered that the baby had a rare medical condition called anencephaly, which means the baby didn't have a brain. While it is possible to carry most of these babies to term (in order to have them baptized or other personal reasons) unless they don't have skulls, the majority of women seem to want to terminate the pregnancy for their own emotional and physical reasons.
These children will never achieve consciousness, yet, under many laws women are forced to pay for their own abortions, and hospitals are refusing to perform abortions on women who are carrying fetuses with deformities.
(I'm using a Mac, and I can't link, so look here for an article on how anti-abortion laws are forcing women to go to abortion clinics for fetal deformity abortions: http://www.obgyn.net/newsheadlines/womens_health-Abortion-20040520-0.asp)
Now, while the Catholic Church says that anencephalic fetuses are still humans (http://members.rogers.com/mlmhopeinturmoil/), they have reptilian brains, and there are arguments that since they will never reach consciousness their organs should be available for donation upon birth (http://www3.azwestern.edu/psy/dgershaw/lol/DonorBabies.html). Most bioethicists seem to disagree.
Regardless, Mrs. Britell chose to terminate her pregnancy at an abortion clinic, and the procedure cost $4,000. Champus would not pay for it, since they only pay for abortions when the mother's life is in danger. Appeals and more appeals, and the First Circuit decided (http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:8JRWL4JV0Y0J:pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/opinions/gertner/pdf/britellsj.pdf+brittel+v.+United+States&hl=en) that the government had an overriding interest in human life, and was able to refuse to pay for the abortions.
Two years ago a different Federal Court ruled differently; in this case the woman was a Navy dependant, and was otherwise in a similar situation. A press release can be seen here: http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6801.
Sorry about my inability to link. Must be some sort of incompatibility between Macs and Typepad..
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