Obamacare’s Taxpayer-Funded Abortions

A GAO report shows that abortions are being paid for with taxes in more than 1,000 exchange plans.

Taxpayer funding for abortion is not, nor has it ever been, a popular policy. A recent Knights of Columbus/Marist poll confirmed this, with 58 percent opposing it and only 37 percent supporting (women actually clocked in with higher opposition than men, with 60 percent opposing). This lack of popularity led long ago to a federal guarantee, known as the Hyde Amendment, that federal taxes will not pay for abortions.

Obamacare has likewise been unpopular. The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll shows that for nearly two years, a majority of Americans have had an unfavorable opinion of this health-care legislation. Currently its popularity deficit is 12 points (47 to 35 percent). It’s little wonder, too, given that the president’s signature legislation has been fraught with problems, missteps, and outcomes directly contrary to what he promised the American people. To understand this ongoing lack of public support, one need only consider the ways in which the HHS sterilization, contraception, and abortifacient mandate has trampled on conscience and First Amendment rights; or recall the law’s disastrous public rollout, or the false promise that “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.”

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