By Joe Sonka, Managing Editor of Amplify

Right now, America seems to be flooded with delusional conservative conspiracy theorists.

“Obama was actually born in Kenya, and is a secret foreign agent sent to destroy our country from within! Obama is secretly setting up FEMA internment camps for conservative critics! Obama’s healthcare reform will set up “Death Panels” to kill old people and babies with disabilities! Obama has mandated that taxpayer funds will now cover abortions!”

Of course, none of these allegations are true. Although, providing funds for poor women to exercise a legal right is something that I wish were true. But unfortunately, it looks like it won’t be.

In an effort to reach “common ground” on abortion, it appears that coverage for any abortion under a public insurance plan was off of the table from the very beginning. From a recent interview with Katie Couric , it looks like the Hyde Amendment, which bans public funds from being used to cover the cost of an abortion, is here to stay:

Katie Couric: Do you favor a government option that would cover abortions?

President Obama: What I think is important, at this stage, is not trying to micromanage what benefits are covered. Because I think we're still trying to get a framework. And my main focus is making sure that people have the options of high quality care at the lowest possible price.

As you know, I'm pro choice. But I think we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care. Rather than wade into that issue at this point, I think that it's appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings, and not get distracted by the abortion debate at this station.

Of course, this begs the question: can there really be “common ground” when one side wants to curtail the legal rights of another side, and has no intention of budging?

The most obvious “common ground” is to reduce the “need” for abortions by making sure that sex education is comprehensive and that people have full access to contraception, thus decreasing the number of unintended pregnancies.

But time after time, conservatives fail to budge on even this small concession.

The abstinence-only movement spent ten years demonizing condoms and birth control, greatly exaggerating their failure rates and side effects. Those whose main goal is the ideological purity and virginity of young people, are not willing to concede, even in the face of the research that shows their brand of “sex education” has failed.

Republicans like Rep. Chris Smith (NJ) continue to commonly use hyperbolic language referring to abortion as the “murder of millions of babies”.

Representative Tim Ryan, a “Pro-life Democrat”, found out first hand that “common ground” is a misnomer when he was kicked off the Democrats for Life of America’s advisory board because he advocated for contraceptives as a way to combat unintended pregnancies. Said Ryan :

“We’re working in Congress with groups that agree with preventative options while [the DFLA] is getting left behind. I can’t figure out for the life of me how to stop pregnancies without contraception. Don’t be mad at me for wanting to solve the problem.”

In fact, one of the few small concessions the anti-abortion movement has made occurred when Mike Huckabee appeared on The Daily Show. When asked by Jon Stewart if he could reach common ground by supporting comprehensive sex education and contraception as a way to reduced unintended pregnancy, Huckabee passed, instead offering his own brand of a common ground solution that we (pro-choice and anti-choice) shouldn’t yell at each other and “we shouldn’t shoot each other.”

Last time I checked – the only people being shot were the doctors and other health care professionals at women’s clinics.

So, if the only ground they are giving up is that they agree not to shoot us… then, I’m sorry, we really have a long way to go to reach common ground.

We should never concede the right of a woman, even a poor woman, to obtain a legal abortion. We should not concede that the right should be covered under a healthcare insurance plan.

Women have the right to exercise control over their bodies. That’s the moral high ground of this argument and we must never forget that.

WE NEED YOUR TAKE

Is there “common ground” on abortion and reproductive rights? Does the left need to compromise – and if so, how? Or, alternately, what would bold leadership on these issues look like from the Obama administration? Post a diary on Amplify or stop by our booth in the exhibit hall to record your response for our Youth Agenda Video Roundup.