Senate
Passes
Amendment
that Could Mandate Abortion Coverage in Insurance Plans
The Senate on Thursday approved the Mikulski amendment by a vote of
61-39. All Republicans except Senators Vitter, Snowe and Collins
voted against the amendment, and all Independents and Democrats except
Senators Nelson (NE) and Feingold voted for it.
Pro-life leaders opposed the amendment over concerns that it provides
authority that could be used to mandate abortion coverage in private
insurance plans.
Specifically, the amendment states that anything classified as
preventive care or screenings for women by the Health Resource and
Services Administration (HRSA) would become a mandated covered
service. However, if the HRSA were to recommend abortion as a
preventive care, insurance plans would have to cover abortion.
In a letter to Congress before the vote, the National Right to Life
Committee (NRLC) explained its opposition to the Mikulski amendment:
"If Congress were to grant any Executive Branch entity sweeping
authority to define services that private health plans must cover,
merely by declaring a given service to constitute 'preventive care,'
then that authority could be employed in the future to require all
health plans to cover abortions."
"Our concern on this point is not hypothetical," urged the NRLC letter.
"Prominent pro-abortion advocates are already on record discussing
abortion as a category of 'preventive health care.'"
In fact, as NRLC points out in its letter, a similar amendment that was
proposed in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pension was backed by a gamut of pro-abortion groups, including Planned
Parenthood and NARAL. "A July 8, 2009 letter from these groups asserted
that by allowing the Health Resources and Services Administration to
issue binding guidelines on preventive services, the 'unique preventive
health needs of women' would be addressed," said NRLC.
Pro-life organizations had proposed that the amendment should be
modified to ensure that abortion coverage would not be mandated.
Americans United for Life (AUL) attorney Mary Harned wrote that while
her group "strongly supports preventative care for women," "the
Mikulski Amendment should be amended to include language prohibiting
abortion from being included in the HRSA guidelines."
However, no such changes were made before the amendment was passed.
Contact: John
Jalsevac
Source:
LifeSiteNews.com
Publish
Date:
December 3, 2009
Link
to
this
article.
Send
this
article
to a friend.
The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
for the disabled and the elderly. Click here to learn more about the IFRL.