Abortion supporters are angry that the federal HHS department has announced that states must obey abortion limits in new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans (PCIPs). The Sebelius-headed HHS department was merrily approving abortion-funding plans to begin immediately– until the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) blew the whistle.
A revised HHS statement now indicates there will be a policy for all PCIPs to follow the “Hyde” abortion limitations, as implemented in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan. Under this principle, federally-funded insurance can only cover abortions for rape, incest and threat to the life of mother without access to supplemental money to enlarge the policy to cover elective abortion.
Abortion allies, including NARAL and the National Women’s Law Center, consider this an unnecessary concession by Obama and –since it is not yet written policy– are fighting it. UPDATES: Democrats for Life in denial and Jill Stanek analyzes abortion supporters’ ire.
The HHS backpedaling began only after National Right to Life exposed the specific imminent abortion coverage in the HHS-managed PCIPs of Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and now Maryland. UPDATE: FactCheck.org agrees.
Under Obamacare, state “exchange” insurance plans will not begin until 2014, and, in the interim, coverage has begun for high-risk individuals who have been disqualified for insurance. 21 states (including Kansas) are designing their own PCIPs while the District of Columbia and 29 other states are using a federal, HHS-managed PCIP.
Abortion payments were NOT banned in the language creating PCIPs, nor under the annual renewal of the the Hyde amendment for Medicaid abortions, nor in the President’s March Executive Order. That Executive Order specifically restricts abortion ONLY in the future state exchange policies and at community health centers.
At this time, no public copy of the Kansas PCIP was found online. Kansas’ current high-risk pool covers around 1,700 people, and reportedly the state expects to receive $36 million from HHS to administer the new plan. There are some unsettling provisions in this program, read here.
Commendably, the “Hyde” abortion amendment has saved, and will continue to save, the lives of many thousands of unborn children that were headed for destruction, courtesy of taxpayer money.
Congress must pass the “Protect Life” bill and we must continue to work to create a society where abortion in not only illegal, it is unthinkable.
