The number of Obamacare plans nationwide offering coverage for on-demand abortion has reportedly exceeded over a thousand insurance plans despite a rule that prohibits using healthcare subsidies to pay for abortions, according to a new investigation.
The probe by two anti-abortion groups comes on the heels of a GAO report that found over 1,000 plans offer elective abortions, even though it has been personally ruled out by the president and not allowed under the president's signature health care law, which prohibits qualified health insurance plans from paying for the procedure except where the mother's life has been endangered, or where the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, according to Washington Examiner.
"2015 appears to be shaping up to include more abortion plans and companies switching policies to cover abortion on demand," said a preliminary statement by the Family Research Council and the Charlotte Lozier Institute, who decided to conduct their own investigation after seeing the GAO report.
In a September report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) had stated that 1,036 plans in 28 different states provided coverage for abortions that did not fall under the allowable exceptions. But now, the "problem is poised to become even more widespread in 2015, with more companies switching to cover abortion on demand, and the plans that were already offering coverage for abortion services starting to expand that coverage," Breitbart reported.
There are indications that even the federal government is considering covering elective abortions in their health insurance.
Specifically, part of the problem lies in the lengthy and complex language that makes up the regulations of the Obamacare law, with FRC and Lozier Institute stating abortion coverage is "hidden in confusing language in health plans, a charge verified by the recent GAO report."
Meanwhile, Republicans sharply criticized the report, with House Speaker John Boehner tweeting a link to the Washington Examiner story and writing, "President Obama said taxpayers wouldn't be forced to pay for abortions in #ObamaCare. That wasn't true."
On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey), the co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-life Caucus, will join with the Family Research Council, the Charlotte Lozier Institute and the Alliance Defending Freedom at Capitol Hill to introduce a bill titled the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act," which would require health care plans to be more transparent about their coverage for abortion services and to comply with the restrictions of the law.
Two days ago, the House Oversight Committee discovered that the Obama administration's much touted first-round enrollment figure of 7.3 million includes about 400,000 people who have only purchased dental plans.
