Does the health care plan cover abortion, or not?

Even the different factcheckers are getting confused about this critical question. The answer turns out to be very complicated, as is trying to understand this complicated bill. this article comes up with this helpful conclusion: “Those who claim abortion clearly is covered, and those who say it clearly isn’t, are both wrong.” Read the explanation at the link. A sample:

When advocates claim that the “public plan” — a government-administered health care option — does not cover abortion, they’re being literally accurate…but slippery. The two main bills (so far) do not, in fact, require a plan to cover abortion. However, they don’t prohibit abortion coverage either, instead leaving it up to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide, later, whether abortion would be included in a basic benefits package.

Pro-life activists say that if abortion can be covered, it will be covered. It’s certainly not an unreasonable prediction, given that the Secretary and the President are both pro-choice (though neither side talks about the flipside: When President Palin is in the White House she could reverse the policy through a simple executive order). . . .

(Memo to the White House press corps: Please ask Mr. Obama, Robert Gibbs or Kathleen Sebelius the following: “The health care legislation gives the HHS Secretary the authority to decide whether abortion is covered. Will you commit right now that abortion will not be covered?”)