Abortion Advocates Claim Senate Health Care Insurance Bill Backs Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 11, 2006
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — In a curious move, abortion advocates on Wednesday tried to turn the tables on pro-life lawmakers supporting a health care bill unrelated to abortion. The pro-abortion lawmakers claimed the bill would promote abortions by denying women access to contraception coverage.
At issue is legislation is a Republican-proposed bill intended to help lower the cost of health care and make it more affordable.
The legislation they’ve proposed would allow small businesses to pool together to purchase health insurance for their employees. The larger pool of financial resources the businesses would have collectively would allow them better negotiating power with insurance companies.
However, because the business poll would likely cross over several states, which divergent laws, the legislation lifts requirements on coverage mandates for the insurance plans.
For abortion advocates, that’s a problem because they say it will allow the pools to purchase insurance plans which may not provide coverage for contraception or the morning after pill — something 25 states require. That will lead to more abortions, they claim.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Hillary Clinton made the claim Wednesday in a joint statement about the bill.
Clinton, a New York Democrat considering a White House bid in 2008, said that "in order to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies and to decrease the number of abortions, we must make contraception more accessible and more affordable."
But Sen. Mike Enzi, a pro-life Wyoming Republican, said nothing could be further from the truth.
He told the Washington Times the Reid-Clinton allegations "fear-mongering in its most transparent form" and indicated that federal rulings would prevent the denial of access to contraception and the morning after pill.
Enzi said Reid and Clinton have come to an "outrageous conclusion" that is "clearly another attempt by opponents of this bill to tarnish it with falsehoods and misrepresentation."
Meanwhile, pro-abortion Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, has offered an amendment that would require the health plans to follow the coverage mandates of the states that have them.
The tactic is becoming a new weapon in the pro-abortion arsenal. Though abortion activists do everything in their power to promote abortion in Congress and state legislatures, they are increasingly accusing pro-life advocates of promoting abortions.
Reid and Clinton made the same arguments in a statement weeks ago about their bill to promote contraception and the morning after pill, which sometimes causes an abortion. They said opponents of their measure would cause more abortions.
Studies show the morning after pill does not lower abortion rates.
