ObamaCare and Abortion -- U.S. Bishops v. HHS

This week, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office issued a report that documented widespread  taxpayer funding of elective abortions in insurance plans authorized by the Affordable Care Act. You can find my story on this development here.

The news did not exactly surprise the U.S. bishops or the broader pro-life community. Back in 2010, as Congress debated passage of Obamacare,  pro-lifers warned that the ACA failed to include adequate safeguards to prevent the use of federal subsidies for elective abortion. 

So after the GAO report made headlines, and pro-life activists prepared to use the information against vulnerable Senate Democrats who had voted for ObamaCare, HHS officials circulated media talking points designed to tamp down the uproar.

By the end of the week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had issued its own response to the HHS talking points. The full response can be found here.  

But to give you a taste of things, see below:

STATEMENT from HHS

CMS [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] will work with stakeholders, including states and issuers, so they fully understand and comply with the federal law prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions.

USCCB Response 

This federal law, the ACA, authorizes use of federal funds for health plans covering abortion on demand – the GAO identified over a thousand such plans. In some states, every plan on the exchange -- including federally subsidized plans -- covers such abortions, and everyone enrolled in those plans is required by the ACA to help fund those abortions. Some of the problems are created by that law; tighter compliance with the law won’t solve those problems.

 

STATEMENT from HHS

Let’s be clear: No Federal funds, including administrative funds, are permitted to cover abortions or administer plans that cover abortions, except in the case of rape, incest, or when the life of the woman is endangered.”

USCCB Response

This is misleading in two ways. First, once an insurer decides to cover elective abortions, it is required by the ACA to make every enrollee pay a surcharge to fund abortions. No opt-out is provided. ACA, Sec. 1303 (b)(2(i). While this is not Federal taxfunding, it is Federally mandated funding of abortion. Second, Federal tax funds subsidize 
health plans that cover abortion, and in many states are used to establish and administer the health exchanges offering these plans.