FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 4, 2013
Contact: Mallory Quigley, 202-223-8073, [email protected]
103 of 112 plans cover elective abortion, a direct violation of the Smith Amendment
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) expressed outrage that, in direct violation of federal law, 103 of the 112 insurance plans being offered to Members of Congress and congressional staff include coverage for elective abortion. The Smith Amendment – first enacted three decades ago and renewed 28 times over that period – strictly prohibits the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from funding or even engaging in administrative activities in connection with any plan that includes abortion. The SBA List called on President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to immediately address this violation, especially given the President’s assurances in 2009 that “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion.”
“The Obama Administration is clearly breaking longstanding federal law by offering Members of Congress and congressional staff health care plans that include abortion on demand,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “This is just another example of how Obamacare expands taxpayer funding of abortion, and is sadly another instance of how the President and his Administration misled the American people when Obamacare was being debated by Congress.
“Obamacare was forced through only after pro-life Democrats naively accepted a promise and an executive order from the White House that taxpayer dollars would not be used to fund elective abortion. Promises as well as laws have now been broken.”
The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the education and research arm of SBA List, recently released a study which found that as many as 111,500 additional abortions per year could be heavily subsidized by taxpayers via federal premium tax credits and Medicaid expansion in Obamacare.
A separate analysis by CLI revealed a complete lack of transparency regarding elective abortion coverage in the state and federal partnership exchanges unveiled on October 1. This analysis was cited in Rep. Chris Smith’s “Dear Colleague” letter announcing introduction of the Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act. Lozier researchers contacted numerous health insurers offering plans as a part of the newly created exchanges to determine which plans cover elective abortion and discovered it was nearly impossible for individuals to know which plans force enrollees to pay an abortion surcharge.
The Susan B. Anthony List and its affiliated Political Action Committees, the SBA List Candidate Fund and Women Speak Out PAC, are dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women at all levels of government. The SBA List is a network of more than 365,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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