Pro-Life Group Tells Congress: No Abortion Funding in Obamacare

National Right to Life today called on Members of Congress to firmly reject attempts by abortion advocacy groups to pressure lawmakers into abandoning efforts to protect taxpayer dollars from subsidizing elective abortion through Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans.

“For decades, federal policy has been clear: taxpayers should not be forced to fund or subsidize abortion,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Attempts to undermine that consensus are deeply out of step with the values of the American people.”

Despite claims by pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Freedom for All that current law fully safeguards taxpayer dollars, the ACA’s structure circumvents the traditional Hyde Amendment protections that apply to most federal healthcare programs. For more than four decades, Hyde protections have represented a durable, bipartisan agreement: taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay for or promote elective abortion. Under Section 1303 of the ACA, insurers participating in the Marketplace may include abortion coverage in subsidized plans as long as they engage in a bookkeeping exercise that “segregates” funds. In practice, this mechanism has proven opaque, inconsistently enforced, and insufficient to ensure that public funding and abortion coverage remain meaningfully separate.

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“For years, federal watchdogs have warned that the ACA’s segregation scheme lacks transparency, accountability, and reliable oversight,” Tobias continued. “The American public deserves better than a paper barrier that does little to ensure that their tax dollars are not supporting unlimited abortion.”

Pro-life lawmakers have repeatedly sought to ensure that ACA Marketplace subsidies mirror the same Hyde-like protections that govern Medicaid, federal employee health plans, and other major healthcare programs. These provisions do not restrict anyone’s ability to purchase abortion coverage with private funds, but they would prevent taxpayers from subsidizing plans that cover abortions.

Current proposals in Congress would simply restore this widely supported framework. Contrary to the claims of abortion advocacy groups, these efforts do not “create chaos,” or “eliminate coverage.” They restore clarity, consistency, and integrity to federal policy.

“Comparing basic taxpayer protections to ‘chaos’ is a cynical attempt to bully lawmakers into ignoring their constituents and the clear moral and policy concerns at stake,” said Tobias. “Congress has a clear mandate to ensure that taxpayer funds are used responsibly and in accordance with longstanding federal policy.”