On Friday, Planned Parenthood led a social media campaign urging the government to “#CoverMyAbortion.” This demand for taxpayer-funding of abortion followed news reports from November that President Donald Trump had altered the rules for abortion coverage under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The viral hashtag revealed that the abortion movement will not hesitate to demand that tax dollars fund abortion.
“A proposed rule would make it virtually impossible for people to get abortion coverage through health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act,” Planned Parenthood Action Fund tweeted on Friday with the hashtag “#CoverMyAbortion.”
A proposed rule would make it virtually impossible for people to get abortion coverage through health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.
What you need to know (and how you can take action): https://t.co/f14SKv4eMp #CoverMyAbortion
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) January 4, 2019
Various pro-abortion groups, such as the Guttmacher Institute, Catholics for Choice, certain chapters of the ACLU, and NARAL, tweeted the hashtag, causing it to trend in the Washington, D.C., area.
The new abortion rules, published by Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar on November 9, are available for public comment until January 8. Planned Parenthood and its allies seem to have launched the “Cover My Abortion” campaign to boost public comments against the rules.
Azar suggested the new rules would ensure that federal tax dollars do not go to abortion. “We are proposing changes to the billing and payment requirements for QHP issuers in connection with their plans offered through an individual market Exchange that include coverage for abortion services for which federal funding is prohibited,” he wrote.
The rules will strengthen “program integrity” by limiting any federal funding that is forbidden by the Hyde Amendment. As Azar noted, the Hyde Amendment “permits federal funds to be used for abortion services only in the limited cases of rape, incest, or if a woman suffers from a life-threatening physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that would as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed.”
Any abortion funding outside these limits is illegal, and the proposed rule refers to it as “non-Hyde abortion coverage.”
The Planned Parenthood “Cover My Abortion” activism demands unfettered access to non-Hyde abortion coverage from insurers in the Obamacare marketplace. This comes at the expense of taxpayers who consider abortion to involve the ending of an innocent human life, and who would be unwilling to fund a practice many consider tantamount to murder.
Planned Parenthood and its allies argue that the rules are unnecessary, but many of them advocate for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, forcing all taxpayers to foot the bill for abortion, regardless of their views on its morality. Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund boldly calls for Hyde repeal.
By phrasing the campaign “Cover My Abortion,” Planned Parenthood has made its intentions clear — they will not be satisfied until all health care coverage includes abortion, even if that means taxpayers must foot the bill.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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