Christian groups across the country are angered after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this week, which outlines that many Americans are indeed paying for abortion through Obamacare.
The report, Health Insurance Exchanges: Coverage of Non-Excepted Abortion Services by Qualified Health Plans, was posted to the organization website on Monday and features extensive information about health insurance exchange plans nationwide and their coverage of elective abortions.
“This report describes whether non-excepted abortion services are covered by QHPs within the 28 states with no laws restricting such coverage for the 2014 benefit year,” it explained.
According to the GAO, 1,036 healthcare plans include abortion coverage, with all plans in Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey and Hawaii providing abortion coverage. Other states such as New York and California mostly offer plans that provide coverage, with 405 out of 426 New York plans and 86 of 90 California plans covering abortion services.
“All but one of the issuers from which we obtained information estimated the cost of the coverage of non-excepted abortion services to be less than $1 per enrollee per month,” the report found.
Following the release of GAO’s report, a number of Christian organizations were incensed that many Americans have been paying for abortion—likely without knowledge.
“This report exposes what we’ve known all along: that Obamacare was designed to force Americans to pay for abortions,” stated Casey Matto senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). “Instead of deceiving the American people, the administration needs to follow federal law and deliver on the transparency we were promised.”
“The American people should not be forced to purchase an Obamacare healthcare plan before they are able to find out what is in it. They should not be kept in the dark regarding elective abortion coverage in Obamacare exchange plans,” said Tony Perkins of Family Research Council. “Further, the American people should not be forced to pay for other people’s abortions and check their consciences at the door in order to purchase insurance.”
Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel noted that under Obamacare, abortion funding was to have been separated from general healthcare needs, but it appears that many insurance companies are not doing so.
“By law, a healthcare plan covering abortion-on-demand, must keep the abortion related funding separate.” Staver explained, “This report shows that issuers are not even itemizing the abortion surcharge, much less maintaining separate accounts.”
“The Obamacare secrecy clause prevents prospective policy holders from knowing whether the plan covers abortion,” he continued. “Only after the policy holder pays the premium and is locked in for a year does Obamacare allow the insurance company to reveal that the policy holder must pay a separate fee to kill innocent children. Never before in history has any government forced its citizens to actively participate in genocide until now. Obamacare is a tragedy and will result in more government-sponsored genocide than any time in history.”
States that have passed laws banning insurance companies from offering abortion coverage include Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Dakota and Florida.