Lincoln Chafee: “What this committee amendment would do is allow the Federal employees health program to resume coverage for abortion…”

“What this committee amendment would do is allow the Federal employees health program to resume coverage for abortion services. Unfortunately, and I believe it was unfortunate, last year, Congress voted to prohibit the Federal employees health program from covering abortions for our female employees and our female dependents. If this committee amendment were not adopted--in other words, if it were rejected --we will be responsible for continuing a lower standard of health insurance for our female employees than they could get if they worked in the private sector. In the private sector you can get this. What this says is you cannot offer this service. Now, there is nothing that says these programs have to include coverage for abortion services. Not at all. Indeed, before that amendment last year was passed, out of the 345 health plans that are all put under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, 345 of them--about half; 178--offered some form of abortion coverage. In other words, a woman could choose this if she wanted; if she wanted a plan that did not cover it, fine, she could choose that. But it seems to me terribly unfair for us to say, no, no, none of those programs can offer this benefit to women who might want to have it.”