Map Tells Whether Obamacare Makes You Pay for Abortions in Your State
Kelsey Bolar /
Pro-life Americans long have criticized the Obama administration for failing to disclose coverage of abortion under the Affordable Care Act. Now, taking matters into their own hands, they’ve come up with a solution.
Two leading pro-life organizations, the Charlotte Lozier Institute and the Family Research Council, teamed up to design a state-by-state map that clearly tells Americans whether the Obamacare plan they’re considering covers elective abortions.
>>> Click here to see the map.
The goal? To help individuals and families find abortion-free health insurance options that don’t require them to pay what many pro-life critics of Obamacare call a “hidden” or “secret” abortion fee.
“Federal funding for elective abortion was the most salient issue as the fate of the Affordable Care Act was hanging in early 2010, right up to the day of its passage,” Charles Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said in an interview with The Daily Signal.
>>> Commentary: How Obamacare Forces You to Subsidize Plans That Cover Elective Abortion
After a Sept. 15 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed what many pro-life individuals had warned—that more than 1,000 Obamacare plans covered abortion while remaining eligible for tax subsidies—pro-lifers called for more transparency.
The report also revealed that insurance companies were failing to collect from policyholders a required separate payment for abortion coverage, what critics call a “hidden” or “secret” fee.
Requiring enrollees to make two separate payments each month—one of them exclusively for abortion coverage—was the government’s attempt to prevent tax dollars, as Obama promised, from directly funding abortion.
Without that separation, pro-lifers say, there’s no guarantee that tax subsidies aren’t going to coverage of elective abortion.
>>> Commentary: Forcing Individuals and Taxpayers to Fund Elective Abortions
Although the Government Accountability Office exposed these shortcomings in the 22-page report, the Obama administration has yet to address many of the problems.
As a result, when Obamacare’s 2015 open enrollment period began Nov. 15, Americans couldn’t easily discern in visiting online insurance marketplaces, called exchanges, which plans cover abortion.
Donovan said:
Despite repeated requests, the Obama administration and HHS leaders have not been forthcoming or enforced transparency for [insurance] carriers and state exchanges about which plans cover elective abortion. The issue clearly matters to millions of Americans directly and the strong majority who oppose tax-subsidized abortion.
The interactive map, titled “Abortion in Obamacare,” allows users to click on their state to read a detailed account of abortion coverage within their exchange options.
According to the map, some states — including New Jersey, Rhode Island and Hawaii — still don’t offer a single plan without abortion coverage. Meanwhile, 24 others, among them Florida and Pennsylvania, have laws strictly forbidding abortion from being covered.
The website is a helpful tool for Americans who don’t want to buy insurance coverage for abortion, Donovan said, “but it is not a final solution to the problem.”
>>> Wondering what’s happening in your state? Click here to find out.