The anti-choice movement has used lies and distortions to build momentum over the past few months. Watch our video to see their strategy in action.
Banning abortion in the private health-insurance market has become the anti-choice movement's top priority in health-care reform. Unfortunately, the anti-choice movement prevailed when the House approved an amendment offered by anti-choice Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.).
Anti-choice members of Congress and their allies distorted key elements of the Stupak-Pitts amendment to make the proposal appear less extreme. Here are rebuttals to these distortions, including the myth of an abortion "rider" that they say women could purchase in addition to their insurance plan:
The Stupak-Pitts amendment forbids any plan offering abortion coverage in the new system from accepting even one subsidized customer. Since more than 80 percent of the participants in the exchange will be subsidized, it seems certain that all health plans will seek and accept these individuals. In other words, the Stupak-Pitts amendment forces plans in the exchange to make a difficult choice: either offer their product to 80 percent of consumers in the marketplace or offer abortion services in their benefits package. It seems clear which choice they will make.
Stupak-Pitts supporters claim that women who require subsidies to help pay for their insurance plan will have abortion access through the option of purchasing a "rider," but this is a false promise. According to the respected National Women's Law Center, the five states that require a separate rider for abortion coverage, there is no evidence that plans offer these riders. In fact, in North Dakota, which has this policy, the private plan that holds the state's overwhelming share of the health-insurance market (91 percent) does not offer such a rider. Furthermore, the state insurance department has no record of abortion riders from any of the five leading individual insurance plans from at least the past decade. Nothing in this amendment would ensure that rider policies are available or affordable to the more than 80 percent of individuals who will receive federal subsidies in order to help purchase coverage in the new exchange.
Who's Who of the Anti-Choice Agenda
Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) sponsored an amendment to the House health-care reform bill that would make it virtually impossible for private insurance companies that participate in the new system to offer abortion coverage to women. Their anti-choice amendment was approved by a margin of 240-194.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is working overtime to spread lies about abortion in an attempt to derail health-care reform. In a speech on the House floor, she said that the legislation could lead to "sex clinics" at schools and "mom and dad are never the wiser." She also helped organize a rally against health-care reform in Washington, D.C. on November 5, days before the House was set to vote on the bill.
Of the nearly three-dozen blatantly anti-choice amendments to health-care reform, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) filed one that would create an "Office of Unborn Children's Health." This proposal comes from the same Sen. Coburn who voted against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover more children.
The Family Research Council, led by Tony Perkins, launched an attack ad that is so egregious that even the anti-abortion group Catholics United condemned it and called on the FRC to end the “public misinformation effort against health care reform.” The FRC also held a press conference on Capitol Hill with six anti-choice lawmakers, plus groups like Concerned Women for America and the National Right to Life Committee.
Randall Terry, founder of the anti-choice group Operation Rescue, used a face-to-face meeting with congressional staff to issue a threat of "ominous repercussions from extremists." He also held a press conference to claim that if lawmakers passed a bill that included an abortion-funding provision, many anti-choice individuals would commit acts of violence, and that pro-choice leaders in Congress would only have themselves to blame for the “chaos and convulsions that follow.”
Photo of Tony Perkins from Family Research Council Photo of Randall Terry from Getty Images
