Americans Want Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Pro-Abortion ObamaCare

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 25, 2010   |   7:37PM   |   Washington, DC

The ObamaCare health care reform law that allows abortion funding has drawn three separate lawsuits seeking to overturn it as unconstitutional. That’s music to the ears of Americans, as a new poll finds a majority want the Supreme Court to decide its fate.

The survey, conducted by October 10 by Pulse Opinion Research, found 53 percent of those polled want the high court to addressed the questioned raised in the lawsuits.

Most of those (42 percent of all voters) who want the Supreme Court to address the issue say they strongly feel that way while the other 13 percent somewhat support the high court reviewing the cases. Some 31 percent strongly disagree and just 10 percent somewhat disagree.

The suits primarily focus on the individual mandate — the forcing of Americans to purchase health insurance and a mandate that would compel them to ultimately pay for abortions.

There is not any language in the law, or an executive order President Barack Obama issued, that contains a blanket ban on taxpayer funding of abortions.

The only limits apply to certain sections — thus, the $7 billion for Community Health Centers, the $5 billion for a temporary high-risk health insurance pool program, and the $6 billion in grants and loans for health co-ops do not have any language saying the funds can’t be used for abortions.

“The health reform bill has been at the helm of most debates this election cycle,” said Vik Rubenfled, the polling director for PJTV, which commissioned the poll, told WorldNetDaily.

“Our nationwide survey shows that 53 percent of the likely voters believe health reform’s constitutionality needs to be addressed by the nation’s highest court. It is interesting to find that nearly one in three Democrats feels the same way,” he added.

The first of three lawsuits is already headed to a federal appeals court while another received a court hearing on Monday in Virginia and a Florida judge held a hearing on the lawsuit in that state recently. 

When it comes to abortion, the ObamaCare law not only doesn’t prohibit insurance plans operating in the exchange from covering abortions, but it says mandates that private insurance companies deciding to cover elective abortions in a health plan “shall… collect from each enrollee in the plan a separate payment” for such abortions.

That means private plans getting federal subsidies make part of the premiums go into a private account that pays for abortions so it “seems” the government isn’t paying for abortions. But the plan still gets government subsidies and those who don’t pay the premiums lose their health insurance.

The ObamaCare law makes it so there is a mandate that at least one plan in every state exchange must be one that doesn’t cover abortions — but every other plan in the exchange may cover them. And the mandate for the pro-life plan expires every year — which means pro-life advocates have to win a vote in Congress annually to keep it.

The law also has administration rules under which the Obama administration could declare abortion “preventive” services and include it for coverage at any time.

The Obama administration and three states already tried to force Americans to pay for abortions in three states — Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Maryland,  through the high risk health insurance pools.

In New Mexico, the plan called for the insured person seeking the abortion to pay the deductible and then the federal government would cover the remaining 80 percent of the cost of the abortion.

The pro-life movement blew the whistle and the Obama administration responded at first by claiming the executive order Obama signed prohibits the funding NRLC uncovered. Then, when it realized this wasn’t true, it promised the high risk insurance programs would not fund abortions.