Virginia General Assembly Opens the Door to Expanded Taxpayer Funded Abortions

      The pro-abortion majority at the General Assembly successfully moved their agenda forward this month with the passage of two bills that will remove prohibitive, protective language in the law that prevents funding elective abortions in health care exchanges sold in Virginia.  Claims that this bill will not require new abortion funding are questionable because of the way these plans are funded.  Both bills passed in each Chamber (the House of Delegates and Senate) on party-line votes.

     While it is true that under current regulations from the Federal Government the Hyde Amendment does prevent funding of abortion in these plans and exchanges except for a few exceptions, there is little doubt that should the Hyde Amendment fail to pass in the new Congress, there will be no protection for taxpayers who adamantly do not want their taxes paying for abortions.

     Claims from the sponsors of the two bills, SB1276, (Senator McClellan, D-9^th) and HB 1896, (Delegate Hudson, D-57), that this change does not requires that any plan fund abortions are misleading. Any exchange that decides to offer abortion coverage will ultimately require state funds to support that plan. It is also a concern because the Federal Government is currently discussing expanding coverage of abortion beyond those allowed by the Hyde Amendment in the near future.

     In 2016 the Obama administration created new regulations that stated that lack of access to abortion amounted to sexual discrimination under the Affordable Care Act. If this rule is put back in place by the Biden administration, it will mean that residents of Virginia may not be able to find any affordable plan for purchase that doesn’t cover elective abortion.

     “VSHL is completely aware that removing the protective language in Virginia law is a critical first step to making Virginia taxpayers pay for all abortions under the state health care exchanges. Regardless of their view on the legality of abortion, few people support using taxpayer money to pay for them.  This is not a pro-life or pro-abortion issue. This is a question of how our taxes may be spent.” said Olivia Gans Turner, President of Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL).