Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Taxpayers Fund Abortions for Congress: New Ruling

President Obama's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ruled yesterday that the special health insurance carve-out for members of Congress and their staffs will pay for abortions.  The OPM action came after these six-figure government workers complained to the president that ObamaCare would cost them too much, so Obama promised that American taxpayers would fund 75% of their health insurance.
“You can’t break the law, Mr. President, and just issue a final rule as if somehow you’re comporting with the law. We don’t want to subsidize abortion on demand, and the public is absolutely with us.”
-- Congressman Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ)
For background, read ObamaCare Covers Abortion & Pays Abortionists and also read Report Says Not Enough Abortions - ObamaCare the Answer as well as Bishops Say Catholic Church Will Defy ObamaCare

In addition, read President Obama Redefines 1st Amendment Freedom of Religion using ObamaCare

-- From "Obama administration: Lawmakers, staff can get abortion coverage" by Jacqueline Klimas, The Washington Times 9/30/13

Federal law generally prevents taxpayer money from being used to pay for abortions, but OPM said the health care plans offered through the exchange were private. The agency also said it will make sure the money is segregated so that the portion that pays for abortions comes out of the employees’ own contributions, which amounts to about a quarter of the premiums.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican, said OPM is violating a law he wrote in 1983 that prohibits OPM from paying any expenses to administer plans that cover abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.

He said he has asked lawyers in the House to see whether a lawsuit could be filed and that pro-life groups also are taking a look.

Democrats applauded the ruling, saying it ensures equal access to abortions.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Obama Admin Will Break Law to Fund Abortions for Congress, Congressional Staff" by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com 9/30/13

Some 84 Members of Congress sent a letter to OPM Acting Director Elaine Kaplan earlier this month. The letter pointed out that the Smith amendment (first offered in 1983 by Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ) is annually attached to the Financial Services Appropriations bill and governs activities by OPM employees. Specifically the Smith amendment states that no funds may be used to “pay for an abortion, or the administrative expenses in connection with any health plan under the Federal employees health benefits program which provides any benefits or coverage for abortions.”

The Member letter specifies that collecting and disburses premiums for health plans that include elective abortion are administrative activities and would constitute a clear violation of the Smith amendment.  While all insurance plans for Federal employees under the FEHBP exclude elective abortion, the Obamacare law deviated from this longstanding policy and explicitly allowed plans on the new health care exchanges to include coverage for all abortion.

In the final rule, OPM specifies that, despite the Smith amendment, the Obama administration will carry out administrative tasks in conjunction with health plans that include elective abortion.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Every Rhode Island Resident on Obamacare is Forced to Pay for Abortions" by Susan T. Muskett, J.D., LifeNews.com 10/1/13

In testimony on September 12 before the Rhode Island House Committee on Finance, the Director of the Rhode Island Exchange confirmed that all of the health insurance plans on the Rhode Island Exchange will cover abortion.

The Rhode Island Exchange will not even have a federally administered multi-state plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion. ObamaCare requires each Exchange to have at least one federally administered multi-state plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion. But this requirement is phased in and the federal government has until 2017 to implement a multi-state plan in every Exchange. Rhode Island is not among the initial states in which a multi-state plan will operate.

The federal government gave over $82 million to the state of Rhode Island to establish its Exchange. The result? A marketplace exclusively for abortion-covering plans.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "How Obamacare Will Subsidize Abortion" by Chuck Donovan, Charlotte Lozier Institute, posted at National Review Online 9/25/13

[The Multi-State Plans (MSPs)] provision of Obamacare represented a partial victory for progressive forces who favored a national, single-payer system. In its place they accepted a category of health-insurance plans managed by the Office of Personnel Management under contracts with private insurance companies. Unlike the federal employee health plans, which are available only to federal workers and their families, these MSPs are guaranteed a place on each state (and District of Columbia) health-care exchange and will therefore be available to every resident of the United States. By virtue of being offered on the exchanges, premiums paid to purchase these plans will be eligible for the generous scheme of subsidies created under Obamacare.

Passage of MSPs required one other major finesse from Democrats on the Hill. In order to deal with the abortion coverage MSPs might provide, the law stipulated that each state must have at least two MSPs and that at least one of them must be a plan that confines its abortion coverage to situations defined by the Hyde Amendment, which are, to simplify a bit, cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is in danger. While the law provided no specific assurance that the other MSPs (one or possibly many more) would cover elective abortion, it has seemed clear from the start (and blisteringly obvious from observing its past patterns) that the Obama administration would ensure that abortion-covering state plans (let’s call them ASPs) would be available everywhere possible (especially inasmuch as the MSP program might ultimately prove a gateway to single-payer).

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Also read President Says His Daughters Need ObamaCare's Free Contraceptives

In addition, read President Obama Asks God to Bless Planned Parenthood