The New York Times and FactCheck.org both claim that Obamacare will not allow taxpayer funding of abortion. As this townhall video shows, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) disagrees:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYvK4h44RU[/youtube]
Lofgren is correct. The Heritage Foundaiton’s Bob Moffit details how taxpayer funding for abortion survived the House Energy and Commerce mark up process:
Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) offered an amendment that would require at least one insurance plan to cover abortion in each geographical region. The amendment would also require the newly-created public plan to cover all abortion services, depending upon the fate of the Hyde Amendment, the measure that currently restricts federal funding of abortion. Rep. Capps’ amendment would also allow affordability credits, which are taxpayer-funded subsidies, to be used for health insurance plans that cover abortions.
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) jointly introduced an amendment that would specifically prohibit federal funds from being used to cover abortion services. The Pitts-Stupak amendment failed. Rep. Pitts also offered an amendment to block any government requirement on health insurance networks to include abortion. Although this second Pitts amendment initially passed, it was reconsidered and it failed on the second Committee vote. Based on the passage of the Capps amendment and failure of the Pitts and Stupak amendments, taxpayers would end up financing abortion.