Did Obamacare Just Allow Tax Payer-Funded Abortions?
A lot has been written about the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. One of the biggest issues facing the health care law is tax payer-funded abortions. President Obama argued that the Affordable Care Act would not cover abortions, and after the bill passed and became law, it seemed that his arguments were to be challenged almost immediately. Now, according to a report on Life News, 1,036 health care plans under the Affordable Care Act cover abortions, which goes against what the president promised while campaigning for the law.
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report first broke the news of the over 1,000 plans covering abortions.
The Hyde Act of 1977 made it illegal for tax payer monies to fund abortions. This has been the rock for which pro-life groups have stood in the defiance of the Affordable Health Care act. Jeanne Monahan, the president of the March For Life Education and Defense Fund, explained to the Christian Broadcast Network that the Hyde Act is being ignored.
“Obama promised up and down, right and left, that abortion would not be covered in the health care law, and that Americans could be assured on his promise that the Hyde protections that we’ve known since the 1970s would still be covered in the health care law. Well, unfortunately, we know now that President Obama has broken his promises.”
Defenders of the Affordable Care Act argue that the act itself isn’t funding abortions, but the insurance carriers are the ones choosing to allow where funds are allocated. But that doesn’t sit well with pro-life activists who charge that Obamacare is designed to help women get free abortions. As the Washington Times reported, the Obama Administration responded to the claims made by the GAO report.
“The Obama administration said Tuesday it will make sure states and insurers understand the ban on using federal funds for abortion, but pushed back at Republican claims that a government audit report proves pro-life advocates’ worst fears about Obamacare.
“No funds are permitted to cover abortions or administer plans that cover the service, as the Affordable Care Act requires issuers to collect a separate payment for coverage of the services, according to an official at the Health and Human Services Department.
“The administration said it will make sure administrators are up to speed on the rules.”
As the fight goes on, Congress is being inundated with requests by pro-life groups demanding action to prevent taxpayer-funded abortions under Obamacare. It’s also important to understand that certain plans under Obamacare offer free birth control, as reported previously on The Inquisitr, and that funded abortions are a separate issue.
With the always tense debate raging on after the GAO report, do you think that abortions are being funded by the Affordable Care Act? Are the insurance companies to blame?
{Images courtesy of Getty / Brendan Hoffman; Reuters]
