The U.S. House has approved a bill to limit private health insurance coverage of abortion services. All Iowa Democrats opposed the new restrictions, while Republicans supported them.
Many private insurance policies currently cover abortions, but that would change if H.R. 358 became law:
Under the Protect Life Act, which passed the House 251 to 172 Thursday night, no health insurance policy that offers abortion coverage could be purchased with federal money made available through the new health care law. Current federal law prohibits plans in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program from covering abortion. The new bill would apply the same rule to plans in the newly created health exchanges, which are subsidized with federal government tax credits. […]
The bill presented Thursday also says that the federal government may not discriminate against health care providers that refuse to provide abortions by refusing them federal funds under the health care law.
Opponents of the bill interpret that to mean that health care providers that receive Medicaid or Medicare funds would be permitted, under the law, to refuse abortions even in life threatening conditions, essentially placing the rights of the hospitals to refuse over the existing rights of a patient for an abortion.
Earlier this year, Maddie Oatman explained how this legislation could “change what hospitals are required to do in the very rare cases when an abortion is needed to save a woman’s life.”
More broadly, the bill would take private insurance coverage away from millions of women who could potentially face an unplanned pregnancy.
Opponents warn that millions of middle- and low-income women who receive partial subsidies to buy insurance would be denied abortion coverage. They said most providers were unlikely to set up two separate plans, one with abortion coverage.
Not everyone has several hundred dollars to pay for terminating a pregnancy on short notice. Although this bill wouldn’t make abortions illegal, it would make them far less accessible across the country.
Click here for the roll call on H.R. 358. There used to be quite a few pro-choice Republicans representing suburban or northeast districts, but only two members of the GOP caucus voted against this bill. Tom Latham (IA-04) and Steve King (IA-05) supported the bill; they have consistently voted against reproductive rights in the past.
Democrats Bruce Braley (IA-01), Dave Loebsack (IA-02) and Leonard Boswell (IA-03) all have strong records on supporting reproductive rights and all voted against H.R. 358 yesterday. Unfortunately, 15 House Democrats voted for this ill-advised bill. There have always been many anti-abortion Democrats in the House caucus. During the late stages of the health care reform negotiations in 2010, 64 House Democrats joined Republicans in approving Bart Stupak’s amendment to limit private insurance coverage of abortion services. Braley, Loebsack and Boswell all opposed the Stupak language (roll call).
I haven’t seen any public statements on last night’s vote from Iowa members of Congress, but if any appear I will add them to this post.
H.R. 358 won’t pass the Senate this year, but all bets are off if the GOP takes control of the Senate after the 2012 elections. Any of the Republican presidential candidates would sign this language into law.