Most people, when they think of healthcare, imagine a system that respects, protects, and extends life. Sadly, Obamacare fails to meet Americans’ fundamental expectations for their healthcare. It even mislabels life-ending drugs and devices as “contraception,” and turns the force of law against those who did not want to harm unborn life directly or pay for others to do so. And we’ve all heard the phrase “you get more of what you pay for” – well, Obamacare also created funding streams for organizations like Planned Parenthood whose business model places mothers and their unborn children in harm’s way.
But AUL is fighting back.
As the Senate considers changes to the healthcare law, we are calling on our elected officials to keep their promises: to address anti-life provisions in the current healthcare law and to protect the conscience rights of all Americans. AUL has been so committed to protecting Americans’ conscience rights that, since the passage of Obamacare in 2010, we have filed 29 amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs, including multiple briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, showing how Americans’ fundamental freedoms and right to value life are eviscerated by the healthcare law. You can learn more about that tragedy in AUL’s video “Who Put ‘The Con’ in Contraception.”
Replacing Obamacare with healthcare that respects both life and the constitutional rights of all Americans is a pro-life necessity. It is un-American to use the force of law against those whose ethics require that they defend and protect life.
The inclusion of these anti-life components in Obamacare was NOT incidental or accidental. AUL testifiedmultiple times about the dangers that the then-proposed Obamacare mandates posed to Americans’ constitutional rights. Abortion advocates were directly involved in the development of many of the provisions of the current healthcare law. In fact, Planned Parenthood publicly bragged about its integral role in shaping the HHS Mandate, which forces many employers to provide insurance coverage for life-ending drugs and devices and would become a proverbial blank check, payable by American taxpayers, for Big Abortion.
Importantly, abortion is woven into the healthcare law at multiple levels. Threats to life in Obamacare include:
• Failing to prohibit the use of federal tax dollars for abortion, abortion coverage, and abortion-inducing drugs and devices.
• Pretending that the Hyde Amendment protections are enough to prohibit direct payment for abortions.
• Permitting federally subsidized Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) to provide abortion coverage through the state insurance exchanges required in all 50 states.
• Failing to prohibit all multi-state qualified health plans from providing coverage for abortion.
• Including a “preventive care” mandate that is being used to force coverage of drugs and devices known to end life.
• Failing to provide comprehensive First Amendment conscience protections for individuals, employers, and insurance companies that have religious or moral objections to abortion.
Please call your U.S. Senators today, asking that they support a pro-life overhaul of the healthcare law and redirect taxpayer dollars to healthcare providers offering life-saving, life-affirming care. You can reach your Senator by calling (202) 224-3121.
Thank you for supporting AUL as we work on Capitol Hill, in the states, and in the courts to defend life in law. We couldn’t do this without you.
Sincerely,
Catherine Glenn Foster,
President & CEO
Americans United for Life
