In a September 30 op-ed, “Abortion and Health Care Reform,”The New York Times opines:

“In a rational system of medical care, there would be virtually no restrictions on financing abortions. But abortion is not a rational issue, and opponents have succeeded in broadly denying the use of federal dollars to pay for them, except in the case of pregnancies that result from rape or incest or that endanger a woman’s life.”

The writer apparently is ignorant of basic principles of rational insurance design and purchasing.  Ethical issues notwithstanding, it can be highly rational for people to be unwilling to pay premiums for coverage of an elective procedure that they are quite sure they will never want or need, and/or which they can pay for out-of-pocket at a cost no greater than the annual charges for the typical cell phone.  And it can be quite rational for voters to decide not to include such coverage in federally funded programs.

To be sure, abortion often is not a subject for rational discourse, as the Times op-ed illustrates.