Senate Republicans have concocted yet another last-ditch effort to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act, and they’re once again courting the anti-abortion movement with a provision in the bill that would prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for non-abortion services for a year and another that would make it harder for many buyers to get insurance plans that cover abortion.
These “pro-life” groups are lining up behind the Graham-Cassidy proposal despite the fact that it keeps aspects of earlier bills that could cut 13 million women off health insurance for maternity care, leaving them to pay thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs for childbirth, allow insurers to charge women thousands of dollars more for the “pre-existing condition” of pregnancy, and allow “states to revoke Medicaid coverage from new mothers who haven’t found a job within two months after giving birth.”
Soon after Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy introduced their bill, the Susan B. Anthony List and the Family Research Council issued a joint statement saying: “This legislation offers Republicans the best chance to fulfill their promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, stop taxpayer funding of abortion, and redirect tax dollars away from the nation’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, to comprehensive health care alternatives.”
The groups added: “Failure to keep their promise to voters will bring into question whether this Congress can truly be called the ‘pro-life Congress.’”
Graham expressed his gratitude to the two groups on Twitter.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony list, urged her group’s supporters to call their senators in support of the bill, saying in an email on Monday, “SBA List fully supports the Graham-Cassidy bill. This represents our best chance to finally pass a pro-life health care bill that defunds abortion giant Planned Parenthood.” FRC president Tony Perkins also sent an email mobilizing supporters to call their senators in support of the bill.
Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman piled on to the FRC and SBA List’s statement, saying, “A health care bill can be improved upon later, but it is imperative that the funding of businesses that conduct abortion be ended now.” Live Action’s Lila Rose sent out an action alert urging supporters to call their senators.
National Right to Life Committee announced that it would support the Graham-Cassidy bill and Americans United for Life tweeted that if Planned Parenthood opposed the bill it had to be good:
It's a good sign when #PlannedParenthood is opposed to the latest Obamacare-repeal bill https://t.co/SaFyuVSsHR @thehill
— AUL (@AUL) September 20, 2017
