We heard it again and again — Obamacare won’t subsidize abortions. President Obama himself said “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion.” Even after this encouragement from our rabidly pro-choice president, pro-life Americans were still incredulous. Nancy Pelosi encouraged us to just wait for the bill to pass so that we could find out what was in it. To no one’s surprise, the majority of the Affordable Care Act’s plans cover abortion on demand.
Under the ACA, states have the option to partner with the federal in an exchange, create their own, or opt out. Arizona, not trusting the bureaucratic nightmare that is Obamacare, chose to opt-out. This means that individual Arizonan’s who want to enroll in Obamacare must do so with the federal health care exchange. This poses a problem for pro-lifers when the majority of the ACA’s plan include abortion coverage.
To combat this, Arizona passed SB 1305 in 2010. However, the Arizona Department of Insurance chose to interpret this bill to only apply to a state-run exchange, making the language of SB 1305 irrelevant in the federal health care exchange used by Arizonans. The Department of Insurance provided a perfect display of government inefficiency, and highlighted the major problem with the ACA. It’s just too big to work.
When Obama swore up and down that we wouldn’t have to fund abortions, he was making a promise that he couldn’t possibly keep. Under the ACA, the process for determining subsidy eligibility alone can take up to 21 steps and filter through at least five different agencies. There is an immeasurable amount of room for government error. The document released by the Department of Health and Human Services explaining how the ACA will be implemented is 644 pages long. The bill itself is 2,700 pages. The regulations associated with the bill total over 20,000 pages. That’s two and a half times longer than the Bible. Does your brain hurt yet?
With these facts in mind, it’s easy to understand why there is so much concern about what our taxpayer dollars are funding under the ACA. Additionally, it’s easier for a third-party politician to win an election than it is for Americans to find a plan under the ACA that doesn’t subsidize abortions.
To contest the mind-boggling amount of rules and regulations accompanied by Obamacare and the Department of Insurance, Arizona lawmakers have now drafted a second bill to protect against taxpayer funded abortions. SB 1318 will protect Arizona taxpayers from funding abortion regardless of what health care exchange they use. This bill is common sense. Women may have the legal right to have an abortion, but taxpayers certainly shouldn’t have to pay for them to have the procedure.
According to a poll carried out by CNN, “Most Americans have never favored using public funds for abortions.” Furthermore, using the taxpayer dollars of individuals who oppose abortion on moral grounds to subsidize the procedure is nothing short of oppressive. Seventeen states have already implemented laws similar to SB 1318.
This bill has been highly politicized due to the fact that it concerns abortion. Opponents of the bill claim that it “restricts abortion rights.” This is absurd. Having the legal right to abortion and being able to pay for it are two separate issues. SB 1318 in no way prohibits women from their legal right to have an abortion; it simply won’t force Arizonan’s to pay for them to do so.
Arizonans should overlook the politics swirling around this bill and support it. SB 1318 isn’t about restricting rights, it’s about protecting them. It’s about Americans refusing to surrender to a tyrannical government.
Reach the columnist at Joan.Lebeau@asu.edu or follow @joanlebeau94 on Twitter
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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