Complaints about U.S. Senate Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction” bill are mounting, including about a provision that would extend tax credits for Obamacare plans that cover abortions.
National Review reports the bill, which narrowly passed the Senate last week, provides $64 billion in funding for the tax credits through 2025. The spending bill passed 51-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
“These expansions further subsidize Obamacare exchange plans that cover abortion, giving millions of people taxpayer-funded plans that cover abortion on demand for as little as $1/month,” which is the minimum abortion coverage surcharge under the Affordable Care Act, Andrew Guernsey, executive director of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, told Live Action News.
Guernsey said the provision is a “blatant” violation of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortions in most cases.
“Many of the estimated 10 million people affected by expanded subsidies, including an estimated 3 million Americans who would drop out of, or be ineligible for, Obamacare exchange plans but for these expanded subsidies, have been driven into taxpayer-funded plans that cover elective abortion,” he said.
Measures like the Hyde Amendment that prohibit taxpayer funding for abortions had strong, bipartisan support in Congress for decades. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment alone has saved an estimated 2.4 million babies’ lives, including about 60,000 each year, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
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Within the past five years, however, Democrat leaders have shifted to a more extreme pro-abortion position that includes forcing American taxpayers to pay for the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
Polls consistently show a strong majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortions. In January, a Marist poll found 54 percent of Americans oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in the U.S. Additionally, 73 percent oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries.
A 2019 Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 49 percent supported the Hyde Amendment while only 33 percent opposed it. And a 2016 Harvard/Politico poll found strong public opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions, especially among lower-income voters. According to the poll, voters who make more than $75,000 were more supportive of forcing taxpayers to fund abortions (45 percent in favor), while those who make $25,000 or less were strongly against it (24 percent in favor).
