Another Shoe Drops Forcing Americans to pay for Abortion Coverage

Contact: Jeff Sagnip, 202-225-3765; chrissmith.house.gov 

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2012 /Standard Newswire/ -- This week while the House of Representatives was out of session, the Obama Administration confirmed its insidious plan for public funding for abortion coverage in Obamacare (PL 111-148) when it issued rules for Obamacare exchanges, complete with an abortion surcharge and a secrecy clause. 

"The mass deception of the Obama 2010 Executive Order has finally been exposed," said Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), Co-chair of the Congressional Pro-life Caucus.  "The Executive Order implemented the same accounting gimmick, abortion surcharge and secrecy clause that was in the original text of the bill.

"We knew it at the time, and the final exchange rule confirms once again that the President was suggesting one thing while doing precisely the opposite," said Smith.

This week's Obama abortion funding rule confirms that publically funded insurance plans WILL include abortion on demand.  Using an accounting gimmick, the premium payers will pay the President's abortion surcharge of at least one dollar per month.  This separate charge will go directly into an abortion fund. 

"Requiring the segregation of funds into allocation accounts -- a mere bookkeeping exercise is a cheap political trick designed to circumvent longstanding prohibitions on taxpayer funding of abortion," said Smith. "This is an unprecedented break with longstanding federal policy on funding for abortion." 

The rule also contains a secrecy clause specifying that the abortion surcharge cannot be itemized in marketing materials, and may "only" be disclosed "as a part of the summary of benefits and coverage explanation, at the time of enrollment."

"This secrecy clause requires insurance companies to bury the abortion surcharge in the summary of benefits so Americans shopping for an insurance plan on the exchange won't know about the abortion surcharge until they sign up for coverage -- and even then they could easily miss the fine print," said Smith. "Undoubtedly many enrollees will be shocked when they get a bill for the Obama abortion surcharge. Once enrolled, even pro-life Americans will be forced to pay for other people's abortions.

"There is NO abortion surcharge and there is NO secrecy clause in the Hyde amendment or in legislation I authored in 1983 (the Smith amendment) to prohibit abortion funding in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program," said Smith.  "Both of these longstanding policies explicitly prohibit coverage for abortion in the federal programs they cover, but President Obama refused to apply the same policy to Obamacare.

"That's why the House has passed THREE bills to overturn this attack on longstanding policies," Smith said. The three bills are as follows:

• On January 19, 2011, the House passed H.R. 2, to repeal Obamacare by a bipartisan vote of 245-189. The President threatened a veto and the Senate defeated a similar provision by a partisan vote of 47-53.
   
• On May 4, 2011, the House passed Smith's bill, H.R. 3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" by a bipartisan vote of 251-175. The President threatened a veto and the Senate has taken no action.
   
• On October 13, 2011, the House passed H.R. 358, the "Protect Life Act" by a bipartisan vote of 251-172. The President threatened a veto and the Senate has taken no action.

"Recognizing the gravity of the accounting gimmicks, abortion surcharge and secrecy clause, 15 states have already passed laws to prohibit elective abortion coverage on their exchange," said Smith.  The 15 states are: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.

"Abortion isn't health care," said Smith. "We live in an age of ultrasound imaging -- the ultimate window to the womb. We are in the midst of a fetal health care revolution, an explosion of benign innovative interventions designed to diagnose, treat and cure disease or illness any unborn child may be suffering. Obamacare should do them no harm. Tragically, it does the worst harm of all. It kills children and makes others complicit in abortion."