A pro-life group in Virginia is urging residents to contact the governor to ask that taxpayer funds not be used to pay for abortions in the state.
“Virginia’s pro-life people need to contact Governor Bob McDonnell ASAP to let him know you do not want your tax dollars funding abortion on demand,” Olivia Gans Turner of the Virginia Society for Human Life tells LifeNews.
“Taxpayer funding is being used to set-up and manage the federal health exchange,” Turner explains. “Virginia can prohibit the federal exchange (within the Commonwealth) from including insurance plans that cover abortions. Governor McDonnell needs to know that you want Virginia to opt-out of abortion coverage.”
Turner says that, in 2011, the General Assembly approved an amendment by Governor McDonnell that would have prohibited a state exchange from including plans that cover abortion on demand. That amendment will expire on July, 2014. Therefore the Virginia General assembly must extend that amendment under the newly passed efforts to create a federal health care exchange in Virginia.
“Unless Virginia adopts language that prevents the funding of abortion through the new health care exchanges, babies will be killed with Virginia taxpayer funds,” she told LifeNews.
“Pro-abortion proponents in the General Assembly are determined to prevent the extension of this protective amendment,” the Virginia pro-life leader continued. “This reasonable policy was already approved by the General Assembly two years ago (when insurance companies covering abortion on demand were banned from a state-run exchange).”
Turner gave the following two action items for Virginia residents.
ACTION: Governor McDonnell needs to know you do not want your tax dollars funding abortion through any health care insurance exchange set up in Virginia. Please contact him immediately and urge him to ensure Virginia opts out of abortion coverage. https://www.governor.virginia.gov/aboutthegovernor/contactgovernor.cfm
Please also contact your members of the General Assembly: https://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/VGAMain?openform and let them know that you want to see taxpayer funded abortions prevented under the new healthcare exchanges. Ask them to support any amendment from the Governor that will accomplish this goal during the upcoming veto session on April 3, 2013.
