Saturday the Senate voted 60-39 to move the U.S. Senate Health Care Bill sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid to the floor for open debate. This newest rendition of the health care bill has removed the Stupak Amendment, which prohibits all public funding for abortion, and replaced it with a thinly veiled rewording of the Capps Amendment, once included in the House bill.
In our alert two weeks ago, we informed you of the dangers of the Capps amendment and its concealed mandate for publicly funded abortions. The new health care bill from the Senate includes the same mandate and the same misleading accounting scheme.
According to Douglas Johnson, National Right to Life legislative director, Sen. Reid’s new bill authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require abortion coverage throughout the newly established public option.
“This would be federal government funding of abortion, no matter how hard they try to disguise it,” he says.
Similarly, affordability credits—federal subsidies for purchasing private health care plans—can be used to purchase private plans that include abortion coverage.
The Senate is expected to begin debating the bill November 30. UFI will keep you updated as the bill progresses.