Quick fact: Matthews dismisses abortion fund segregation allowed under status quo as an "accounting trick"

From the November 9 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews:

RICHARDS: There were a number of people who were looking for something other than the extreme measure that the Stupak amendment represents. They're ready to vote for health care reform, they're ready for a fair compromise. That was represented by the Capps amendment; frankly it's what's represented now in the two bills that are in the Senate. So I think that this was an anomaly, I think now we're all focused on the Senate where I think cooler heads will prevail you're not going to see this sort of 24th hour attempt to derail health care reform and I think [...] there is a fair compromise that's still out there and that can attract a majority of folks in the United States House to vote for it.

MATTHEWS: Well, Cecile, as you know, I'm trying to respect both points of view--the pro-choice and the pro-life--because we live in a democracy and we work these things out. The problem with the Ellsworth proposal [...] is that it looks like an accounting trick. It looks like you're saying ok some of the money that goes into an insurance plan will go to abortions and some won't and everybody knows that money is fungible and that this is basically an accounting trick, and I don't think it will work with people who have a moral problem with abortion funding by the federal government. I think you've got to go back and cut at this again and find a different way to distinguish public support for health care and the individual right to choose to have an abortion. That those have to be two separate decisions. If the federal government subsidizes abortion a lot of people believe that it's encouraging it.

Fact: Status quo already allows people participating in federally funded plans to obtain abortions as long as funds are segregated.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Hyde Amendment was originally passed to prohibit federal funding for abortions through the Medicaid program and has since been expanded to other areas. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the prohibition on federal funding for most abortions under Medicaid, according to a September 1 study by the Guttmacher Institute, 17 states provide coverage under Medicaid for "all or most medically necessary abortions," not just abortions in cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. Therefore, in 17 states, Medicaid, a federally subsidized health care program, covers abortions in circumstances in which federal money is prohibited from being spent on abortion.