WASHINGTON — Efforts to reform the healthcare system have added new spark to America’s long-running abortion debate. Anti-abortion groups are posting videos and running ads saying that health-reform legislation in Congress would mandate federal funding of abortions. Pro-abortion rights groups – and President Obama – say that’s false. Two independent truth-squad groups, Factcheck.org and Politifact.org, also call the claim false, but Politifact acknowledges that the issue of federal subsidies for abortion is a more difficult question. Thus is launched the latest round in the abortion wars – one that threatens to consume the reform effort this fall. ‘The abortion issue is a very serious one for Christian conservatives and a potential deal breaker for healthcare reform, says John Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron, in Ohio. ‘It is much more serious potentially than the ‘death panel’ claims if it involves actually paying for abortions. Efforts to stay ‘abortion neutral’ In the drafting of health reform legislation, some members of Congress have worked to keep it ‘abortion neutral – that is, no more permissive or restrictive than current law on the use of federal dollars for abortion. Currently, under the […]