House Republicans Found a New Way to Go After Abortion Access in Blue States

[Celerity]

A provision in the House reconciliation bill would give them a pathway to restrict access to abortion in states that legally protect it.

https://www.notus.org/health-science/house-republican-reconciliation-bill-abortion-affordable-care-act



The reconciliation bill has given Republicans a way to target abortion access in states that legally protect it: threatening their federal health care funding. House Republicans added a last-minute provision to their reconciliation bill via a manager’s amendment that would block certain Affordable Care Act funds from going to state health plans that cover abortion services. There are currently 13 states — California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state — with laws in the books that require insurers to cover abortion.

If the provision becomes law, it could force state officials to choose between maintaining abortion accessibility and ensuring that residents maintain their health care coverage. After years of arguing abortion policy should be left to the states, some congressional Republicans acknowledged they want to have a say in what the states do — at least when it comes to funding. “It’s reasonable for us to be concerned about how federal dollars are flowing to jurisdictions, how they’re being used,” Rep. Chip Roy told NOTUS. Rep. Chris Smith, co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, told NOTUS that he never felt abortion policy should be left entirely to the states “I read the [Dobbs] decision by the Supreme Court very carefully. Us and the states — us being federal — are equally empowered to protect life,” Smith said.

But many Republicans have emphasized state decision-making powers on abortion policy and pushed back on Democrats who accused conservatives of trying to ban abortion nationwide. This provision goes against that messaging, some Republican lawmakers acknowledged. Rep. Kevin Hern, chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, said that the reconciliation bill is not “the perfect bill,” so compromises had to be made — including adding a measure that goes against party messaging. One House Republican, who said he was unaware of the provision, put it bluntly: “The longer I’m here, I’m never sure that anybody follows anything anymore.”

Democrats said the reconciliation bill’s abortion provision was just another effort to ban abortion nationwide. Republicans “are going to do a national abortion ban in every single way they can, without coming out directly and saying it,” House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark told NOTUS. Instead of going for an outright ban, she said, Republicans will “go after the funding.” The Hyde Amendment already bans federal funds from being used directly on abortion. The Affordable Care Act prohibits recipients from using cost-sharing reductions — financial assistance to lower the out-of-pocket costs for low-income individuals — to pay for abortions.

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