New But Unimproved: Abortion Funding in the White House Health Plan

Chuck Donovan / February 22, 2010

The President promised that under health reform taxpayers would not be forced to fund abortion. Not true.

The new health care outline posted by the White House this morning appears to aggravate concerns about a new abortion funding scheme that is not covered by any limitation, including the traditional Hyde amendment governing annual appropriations to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Stupak-Pitts amendment adopted by the House of Representative last November in its version of health reform. Instead, the White House plan would invest $11 billion in an expansion of Community Health Centers, others known as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), with no limitation at all.

This $11 billion price tag is $2.5 billion higher than called for by the Senate bill approved on Christmas Eve. That legislation provided for $7 billion in fresh appropriations for operating funds and another $1.5 billion in spending for construction of FQHCs (both sums over five years). Because this money would be directly appropriated if the Senate bill is adopted and signed into law, it does not need to be included in the annual Labor-Health and Human Services spending bill. As a result, the Hyde Amendment abortion funding limit would not apply to these FQHC funds. Nor would the comprehensive Stupak-Pitts funding limit, unless the House-passed language of that amendment is specifically included in the Senate bill updated by today’s White House proposal. (more…)