| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 21, 2019 |
CONTACT: Mallory Quigley [email protected] 202-223-8073 |
Pro-life Groups to HHS Administrator Seema Verma: Finalize Abortion Separate Payments Rule
Washington, D.C. – Today the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) and pro-life leaders sent a letter to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), urging her to finalize the “separate payments rule” that would enforce the law regarding an Obamacare abortion surcharge.
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser explained:
“The 2010 passage of Obamacare came only after securing the votes of so-called pro-life Democrats with an accounting gimmick that required a separate abortion surcharge every month. After securing these votes, the Obama administration went on to unilaterally ignore its own law, and instead allow insurers to hide the abortion surcharge in plan documents instead of collecting it separately. The separate payments rule will require compliance with the law, so that ‘separate’ is no longer translated as ‘together’ when it comes to abortion funding.”
pro-life organizations backed the letter, including March for Life Action, Americans United for Life, National Right to Life Committee, The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Students for Life, among others. The pro-life coalition letter reads in part:
“Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funding through Health and Human Services to cover elective abortions or insurance plans that include elective abortion coverage. Research shows that by the end of 2018, over 2.3 million babies have been saved as a result of this amendment. This policy applies to Medicaid and other federal health care programs. The sole deviation from the Hyde principle is Obamacare…
“We were very supportive of the November 2018 Department of Health and Human Services proposed rule, ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Exchange Program Integrity,”’ which would bring federal regulations into compliance with the clear meaning of Section 1303. While including abortion at all in government subsidized health insurance plans runs afoul of the long-standing principle of the Hyde Amendment, requiring separate payments is an important first step in correcting this wrong and providing transparency.
As we near the one-year anniversary of the proposal of this rule, we strongly urge its finalization and swift implementation.”
SBA List is a network of more than 837,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
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