As analysis of the Senate version of a new healthcare law gets underway, Americans United for Life President and CEO Catherine Glenn Foster called on elected officials to keep their promises to address the anti-life provisions in the current healthcare law and to protect the conscience rights of all Americans who, under Obamacare, face governmental pressure and force when refusing to comply with coercive mandates. “Replacing Obamacare with healthcare that respects both life and the constitutional rights of all Americans is a pro-life necessity,” said Foster. “It is un-American to use the force of law against those whose ethics require that they defend and protect life. Today, I was at the Senate office of Senator Mitch McConnell asking him to redirect scarce tax dollars to real medical services for women because abortion is not healthcare.”
Health insurance policies that cover for life-ending drugs and devices. Foster observed, “In fact, Planned Parenthood publicly bragged about its integral role in a shaping the HHS Mandate, which would become a blank check, payable by the American taxpayers, for the abortion mega-provider.”
Abortion is woven into the healthcare law at multiple levels, making repeal of the law a pro-life necessity. 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.
“Fundamental flaws in the Affordable Care Act make it unworkable,” said Foster. “No one should face the wrath of hostile government officials simply for their desire to provide life-affirming care to women and their unborn children or the ill and elderly.”
