Redux: Obama Claims Health Care Plan Will Not Cover Abortion Services

Published December 24, 2015

Critics of health care proposals in Democratic-sponsored legislation on Thursday accused President Obama of offering his own myth when he claimed in a speech Wednesday night that no federal dollars would be used to fund abortions.

While language included in the House bill technically bans the use of taxpayer money to fund abortions, critics say those terms are useless.

"People can use government subsidies to do this," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life.

Under the current legislation in the House, people who decide to participate in a government-run "public option or in a health-care exchange, which provides subsidies for private insurance, will pay premiums. Those premiums will be the only money used for abortion services, not any taxpayer funds that may cover the rest of the costs of administering the program, say supporters of the bill.

"The only funds that may be used to pay for other abortion services are from private funds generated by the policyholders' premiums, whether the policyholder is covered by a private plan or the public option," said Emily Kryder, a spokeswoman for Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., who added the amendment to the House bill.

In a one-line response to charges that taxpayers will foot the bill for abortions, Obama Wednesday night called it a "bogus" claim.

"One more misunderstanding I want to clear up -- under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place," the president said in an address to a joint session of Congress to sell health care reforms.

But critics say the premium vs. taxpayer pots are a distinction without a difference.

"This is a political hoax," Johnson told FOXNews.com before appearing with pro-life lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "The public plan is explicitly authorized to cover all abortions. This is not disputed. They will be paid for out of a federal Treasury account. These are as much federal funds as any other funds at the U.S. Treasury."

Johnson said under the House legislation abortion providers would send their bills directly to the Health and Human Services Department and receive a check from the government for their services.

Obama has called the abortion claim a "fabrication" and "distraction" from passing reform, but the current legislation has ignited a firestorm among lawmakers and pro-life groups who say the president's words are grossly misleading.

Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote last month that the bills now before Congress don't "require" federal money to be used for abortion services.

"The president is right to that limited extent," the project said. "But it's equally true that House and Senate legislation would allow a new 'public' insurance plan to cover abortions, despite language added to the House bill that technically forbids using public funds to pay for them. Obama has said in the past that 'reproductive services' would be covered by his public plan, so it's likely that any new federal insurance plan would cover abortion unless Congress expressly prohibits that."

A poll released Thursday by the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group, found that 43 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to back Obama's health reform legislation if the government pays for abortions. The poll, which surveyed registered voters from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/redux-obama-claims-health-care-plan-will-not-cover-abortion-services