Chris Smith: “For those of us who recognize abortion as violence against children and the exploitation of women, nothing less than a…”

“For those of us who recognize abortion as violence against children and the exploitation of women, nothing less than a comprehensive prohibition of public funding of elective abortion satisfies the demands of social justice. Regrettably, the language that emerged from the Senate is weak, duplicitous and ineffective, not by accident but by design. It will open up the floodgates of public funding for abortion in a myriad of programs resulting in more dead babies and more wounded mothers. For the first time ever, the Senate-passed bill permits health care insurance plans and policies, funded with tax credits, to pay for abortion, so long as the issuer of the federally subsidized plan collects a new congressionally mandated fee--an abortion surtax--from every enrollee in the plan to pay for other people's abortions. The Senate-passed bill creates a new community health center fund. Hyde amendment protection do not apply. Therefore, either the Obama administration or a court is likely to compel funding there as well. Also, the bill creates a huge, new program administered by OPM that would manage two or more new multistate or regional health plans. The legislation says that only one of those multistate plans not pay for abortion, which begs the question, what about the other multistate plans administered by OPM?”