Trying to head off a potentially explosive mid-term election battle that has control of both houses of Congress up for grabs, Wednesday, the Health and Human Services spokeswomen Jenny Backus, has issued a release concerning abortion coverage under the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan. In the statement, “abortions will not be covered in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) except in the cases of rape or incest, or where the life of the woman would be endangered.”

The Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan which got under way earlier in July, is a plan established to cover uninsured Americans unable to find coverage under a private carrier due to an existing medical problem. Coverage is set to begin August first with premiums, though varying from state to state, to be roughly on par with those paid by healthy Americans.

Abortion foes had been using the abortion issue as a way to chip away at the new Health Care legislation narrowly passed earlier this year and set to take effect in 2014. Hailing this a victory for anti-abortion advocates, Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak remarked, “They have made it very clear abortions are not going to be covered.”

Abortion advocates such as NARAL president Nancy Keenan attacked the decision as inexplicable and wrongheaded, and added further that it puts women’s lives in jeopardy.