Tag Archives: ObamaCare

Victory! Pa. Senate OKs Bill to Prevent Tax Funding of Abortion

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Bill Protecting Pa. Tax Dollars Heads to Governor

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania taxpayers gained a victory Wednesday when the state Senate passed a bill to prevent tax dollars from being spent on abortions.

House Bill 818, which passed the state House in April, ensures that Pennsylvania opts out of elective abortion coverage in the state health insurance exchange created through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support, 31 votes in favor to 19 against.

“House Bill 818 is a true taxpayer protection bill,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. “We applaud the Senate for preserving Pennsylvania’s longstanding and time-tested policy that prevents taxpayer funding of abortion.”

The Affordable Care Act includes a provision allowing states to opt-out of abortion coverage in the health insurance exchanges. Pennsylvania is one of more than 30 states that have, or are in the process of, enacting opt-out legislation.

“National polls show that more than 70 percent of Americans oppose tax dollars being spent on abortion,” Gallagher said. “We are grateful to both the Senate and the House for listening to women and men throughout the Commonwealth who do not want their hard-earned tax dollars to be used for abortions.”

House Bill 818 includes exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, which are the same exceptions that apply to Medicaid funding of abortion in Pennsylvania. Therefore, the Pennsylvania bill is in line with state law and the U.S. Constitution.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Donna Oberlander, R-Clarion, will go to Governor Tom Corbett’s desk for signature.

Responding to Arguments for Abortion in Health Care

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I have been reading some great arguments that point out the dangers of President Obama’s new health care law and its abortion and rationing provisions.

The first, by Dr. Brian Clowes from Human Life International, takes on the ridiculous arguments that the new health care law will reduce abortions and that abortions save our society money. Clowes says if those are our government’s true goals, this law certainly isn’t going to fulfill them.

Proponents site a pro-ObamaCare study that suggests every abortion will save $13,000 in health care costs.

Clowes responds: “But they completely neglect that over the 80-year lifespan of even an unwanted baby, they pay tremendous benefits back into society in taxes and goods consumed and so on, which amounts to millions of dollars each.”

Further, he says states that pay for abortions have a 50 percent higher abortion rate.

The second argument comes from esteemed pro-life law professor Helen Alvare. She presents a great argument about how the law actually limits the majority of Americans’ “freedom to choose” an abortion.

Alvare writes: “Polls show that most women don’t want abortion in their health coverage (68 percent, according to a poll taken in fall 2009, as the health care debate began). Most insurance companies still include it, but enrollees can always ask that it be taken out, and may get their way if they band together. The new health care law changes this balance of power by giving insurance companies more power to make such unilateral decisions.”

In other words, the law puts the power to decide abortion coverage into the hands of the insurance companies.

The truth is that most Americans are pro-life. We do not want abortions, but because of this new law, we are going to be forced to pay for them.