Another Lie: Obama Administration Approves First Direct Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Through New High-Risk Insurance Pools

(CNSNews.com)- If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on
taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania,
says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).

Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human
Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new
high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in
the state.

"The fact that the high-risk pool insurance program in Pennsylvania will
use federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is unconscionable,"
Boehner said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Just last month at the White House, I asked President Obama to provide
the American people with a progress report on the implementation of his Executive
Order, which purports to ban taxpayer-funding of abortions.
Unfortunately, the President provided no information, and the American
people are still waiting for answers."

President Obama pledged that under his health care plan “no federal
dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will
remain in place.” 

In a May 13 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius, Boehner asked if her department has provided guidance to the
states on how to implement the president’s Executive Order on abortion
funding. Boehner also asked Sebelius if the new federal high-risk pools
would exclude abortion coverage. He says his questions remain unanswered.

"Millions of Americans care deeply about this aspect of the new law and
its implementation, and no progress report is complete without detailed
information about it,” Boehner wrote to Sebelius.

The conservative Family Research Council says the $160 million in
taxpayer funds for Pennsylvania is the first known instance of direct
federal funding of abortions through the new high-risk insurance pools.

The abortion funding for pool participants validates the arguments
pro-life groups made throughout the health care debate – that taxpayer
dollars will fund abortions, said Tom McClusky, senior vice president of
the Family Research Council’s political action arm.

“For our efforts to remove the bill's abortion funding, we were called
'deceivers' by President Obama and 'liars' by his allies. Now we know
who the true deceivers and liars really are,’ McClusky said.

"This action by the Obama Administration also exposes the worthlessness
of President Obama's Executive Order that supposedly would prevent
federal funding of abortion, but which both sides, including Planned
Parenthood, agreed was unenforceable.

"While the American people deserve an apology from President Obama for
his deception, we should only be satisfied when this Pennsylvania
abortion funding is rescinded and the health care law repealed.

McClusky noted that the new health care law also includes $12.5 billion
for community health centers, and $6 billion for co-ops, both of which
can fund abortions.  And some people will use tax credits to help them
pay for plans that cover abortion.

Even before it’s fully implemented, the Democrats’ health care plan “is
already being exposed as a high-taxing, poorly thought-out, and
taxpayer-funding-of-abortion monstrosity,” McClusky said.

Republican leader Boehner says House Republicans would codify the Hyde
amendment, thus prohibiting all authorized and appropriated federal
funds from being used to pay for abortion.  Under the Republican plan,
any health plan that includes abortion coverage would not receive
federal funds.