ACLJ: Abortion funding issue cannot be resolved without a specific exemption

Sep 11 2009

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), focusing on constitutional law, said today despite President Obama’s insistence that “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” – the fact is that such a proclamation does not guarantee that abortion won’t become a mandatory health care “benefit” under health care reform. The ACLJ, which has heard from more than 65,000 Americans calling on Congress to exclude abortion as a mandatory health benefit, said the abortion funding issue cannot be resolved without a specific exemption that must be included in health care legislation.

“President Obama did nothing to alleviate the growing concern about turning health care into a government-run bureaucracy that will include an open door for transforming abortion into a mandatory health benefit,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice. “President Obama’s comments about abortion funding and health care simply don’t reflect the real story. The fact is that a specific exemption must be included in the current legislative proposals to prohibit any mandate for abortion services in health care reform and to prohibit federal dollars from funding plans that include abortion services. And, without such an exemption, there’s a green light in place for making abortion services a mandatory health benefit funded by federal tax dollars. This is an unacceptable alternative that the American people do not want and that needs to be rejected by Congress.”

The ACLJ has produced legal analysis on the abortion/health care issue – including a legal memo distributed to the House, which argues that it “is vital that any health care reform plan explicitly exclude abortion services from any national health care coverage mandate.”