Georgia Governor Signs Bill Banning Tax-Funding of Abortions in Obamacare

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 24, 2014   |   12:25PM   |   Atlanta, GA

Governor Nathan Deal today signed SB 98, a new law that prohibits using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion insurance coverage in Georgia. The law prohibits public funds from paying for abortions under the state Obamacare health care exchange.

The measure has Georgia joining a list of other states to use the provision in Obamacare to opt out of abortion funding, allowed by numerous loopholes and a lack of an abortion funding ban in the legislation.

pichealth50Georgia Right to Life officials praised Deal for signing the pro-life bill into law.

“As a pro-life woman and mother, I am deeply grateful that Governor Deal signed this law,” GRTL’s Genevieve Wilson said. “Once again, he has demonstrated that he is solidly pro-life.”

“I’m deeply grateful to Senator Judson Hill (R-Marietta) and Representative Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville) for sponsoring this legislation,” Wilson said. “Georgia is solidly pro-life, and bringing a halt to publicly funding this horrific practice is long overdue.”

She said Georgia is the 25th state to adopt a law stopping taxpayer funding of abortion through Obamacare. Under the new health care law, states will be in charge of their own health care exchanges that are available for individuals and small businesses.

Denise Burke, an attorney with Americans United for Life, has explained the opt out clause contained in the Obamacare bill, which otherwise fails to contain sufficient limits on abortion funding.

“Specifically, the new law prohibits health insurers participating in the state-run health insurance exchange from offering plans or policies that cover abortions except in rare cases in which the mother’s life is in danger,” she said.

When Congress passed the government-run health care bill, it did so without any limits on abortion funding and language mandating taxpayer financing of abortion in certain circumstances.

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Obama eventually issued a controversial executive order supposedly taking the abortion funding issue off the table.

However, virtually every pro-life group said it would not mitigate the abortion funding because it doesn’t have the effect of law, could be reversed in the future, and because it didn’t tackle much of the abortion funding in the bill. The Obama administration could also ignore the order and not put it in place when the health care law goes into effect.