Leading
pro-life organizations are upset by the news that the Obama administration
has issued the final rules on abortion funding governing the controversial
health care law allowing for a $1 abortion insurance payment surcharge.
As LifeNews
initially reported, the Department of Health and Human Services has
issued a final rule regarding establishment of the state health care
exchanges required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
As a
knowledgeable pro-life source on Capitol Hill informed LifeNews, as
authorized by Obamacare, “The final rule provides for taxpayer funding of
insurance coverage that includes elective abortion” and the change to
longstanding law prohibiting virtually all direct taxpayer funding of
abortions (the Hyde Amendment) is accomplished through an accounting
arrangement described in the Affordable Care Act and reiterated in the
final rule issued today.
 “To comply
with the accounting requirement, plans will collect a $1 abortion
surcharge from each premium payer,” the pro-life source informed LifeNews.
“The enrollee will make two payments, $1 per month for abortion and
another payment for the rest of the services covered. As described in the
rule, the surcharge can only be disclosed to the enrollee at the time of
enrollment. Furthermore, insurance plans may only advertise the total cost
of the premiums without disclosing that enrollees will be charged a $1 per
month fee to pay directly subsidize abortions.”
Tony Perkins
of the Family research Council was quite upset by the news.
“The day
that Bart Stupak said would never come is here. Almost two years after the
former congressman agreed to an executive order “banning” abortion funding
in ObamaCare, the President finally proved how useless it was. For all the
time spent trying to shield taxpayers from any involvement in the abortion
business, the executive order dissolved this week into what it always was:
a meaningless piece of White House letterhead,” he said. “As part of the
new regulations on how state health exchanges will work, anyone enrolled
in an insurance plan that covers abortion will be responsible for sharing
the cost.”
He pointed
out how HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
explained this way back in 2009. “[W]hether you’re male or female,
whether you’re 75 or 25, you would all set aside a portion of your premium
that would go into a fund, and it would not be earmarked for anything, it
would be a separate [abortion] account that everyone in the exchange would
pay… It is a bit confusing, but it’s really an accounting that would apply
across the board and not just to women, and certainly not just to women
who want to choose abortion coverage.”
“For all
intents and purposes, this is just another mandate on abortion, which,
like its contraception counterpart, makes no exemptions for people with
moral objections. Despite the accounting gimmicks, taxpayers will still
have to reach into their own pockets and fund the procedure,” Perkins
continued.
The Life
Legal Defense Foundation also complained about the new rules.
“The rule
provides for taxpayer funding of insurance plans that include elective
abortion. This departure from the longstanding policy is accomplished
through an accounting arrangement described in the Affordable Care Act and
reiterated in the final rule,” the pro-life legal group said.
LLDF
continued: “To comply with the accounting requirement, plans collect a $1
abortion surcharge from each premium payer. The enrollee will make two
payments, $1 per month for abortion and another payment for the rest of
the services covered. As described in the rule, the surcharge can only be
disclosed to the enrollee at the time of enrollment. Furthermore,
insurance plans may only advertise the total cost of the premiums without
disclosing that enrollees will be charged a $1 per month to directly
subsidize abortions.”
“The final
rule mentions, but does not address concerns about abortion coverage in
“multi-state” plans administered by the Federal Government’s Office of
Personal Management (OPM). There is nothing in the Affordable Care Act to
prevent some OPM (government administered) plans from covering elective
abortion, and questions remain about whether OPM multi-state plans will
include elective abortion. If such plans do include abortion, there are
concerns that the abortion coverage will even be offered in states that
have prohibited abortion coverage in their state exchanges. The final rule
indicates that specific standards for multi-state plans will be
forthcoming in future rules from OPM,” LLDF said.
The group
concluded: “The final rule extinguishes the hope that the implementation
of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would respect the rights
of the unborn and the religious liberty of pro-life citizens who have
conscientious objections to their tax dollars being used to fund
abortion.”
The pro-life
women’s group Feminists for Life also complained about the $1 abortion
surcharge.
“The
President’s promise to women and children has been broken,” said FFL
President Serrin Foster. “This is most disappointing because it affects
those most vulnerable–the poor and working poor, young working women who
are otherwise uninsured, and students who are not on their parents plan,
and who now be forced to pay $1 for an abortion surcharge through the
exchange. A dollar is a dollar too much for abortion. Abortion does
nothing to address the unmet needs of women.”
“If abortion
was such a great thing, why keep this coverage such a secret?” Foster
asked.
Nestled
within the “individual mandate” in the Obamacare act — that portion of the
Act requiring every American to purchase government — approved insurance
or pay a penalty — is an “abortion premium mandate.” This mandate requires
all persons enrolled in insurance plans that include elective abortion
coverage to pay a separate premium from their own pockets to fund
abortion. As a result, many pro-life Americans will have to decide between
a plan that violates their consciences by funding abortion, or a plan that
may not meet their health needs.
As LifeNews
reported, the final HHS rule mentions, but does not address concerns about
abortion coverage in “multi-state” plans administered by the Federal
Government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
“There is
nothing in the Affordable Care Act to prevent some OPM (government
administered) plans from covering elective abortion, and questions remain
about whether OPM multi-state plans will include elective abortion,” a
pro-life source on Capital Hill said. “If such plans do include abortion,
there are concerns that the abortion coverage will even be offered in
states that have prohibited abortion coverage in their state exchanges.”
The final
rule indicates: “Specific standards for multi-state plans will be
described in future rulemaking published by OPM…”
Set to go
into effect in 2014, the unconstitutional provisions found in Section 1303
of the Obamacare Act compel enrollees in certain health plans to pay a
separate abortion premium from their own pocket, without the ability to
decline abortion coverage based on religious or moral objection.
That
provision was the subject of
a legal document that Bioethics Defense Fund’s Dorinda C. Bordlee,
lead counsel for the group, submitted to the Supreme Court in February.
“This
violates the Free Exercise Clause because religious exemptions are made
for groups such as the Amish who morally object to purchasing any
insurance, but no exemptions are made for Americans who have religious or
moral objections to abortion,” Bordlee said.
“President
Obama’s healthcare overhaul includes an ‘abortion premium mandate’ that
blatantly violates the conscience rights and First Amendment religious
rights of millions of Americans,” AUL president Charmaine Yoest said.
“Nowhere in the Constitution does it require Americans to violate their
beliefs and pay for abortions.”
ADF Senior
Counsel Steven Aden says Americans should not be compelled to pay for
other people’s elective abortions.
“No one
should be forced to violate their conscience by paying for abortions, but
that’s precisely what ObamaCare does,” he explained. “ObamaCare requires
that employees enrolled in certain health plans pay a separate insurance
premium specifically to pay for other people’s elective abortions and
offers no opt-out for religious or moral reasons. Such a mandate cannot
survive constitutional scrutiny.”
BDF
president and general counsel Nikolas Nikas said the individual mandate
not only forces individuals into private purchases, it also effectively
mandates personal payments for surgical abortion coverage, without
exemption for an individual’s religious or moral objections.
He told
LifeNews in an email, “Like a Russian nesting doll, the individual mandate
has nestled within it a hidden, but equally unconstitutional scheme that
effectively imposes an ‘abortion premium mandate’ that violates the free
exercise rights of millions of Americans who have religious objections to
abortion.”
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