Supreme Court Upholds Pro-Abortion, Pro-Rationing Obamacare

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 28, 2012   |   10:35AM   |   Washington, DC

The Supreme Court has issued a 5-4 decision essentially upholding the Obamacare law that pro-life groups regard as the biggest expansion of abortion and abortion funding since Roe v. Wade.

The law also drew strong opposition from the pro-life community not only over abortion but because the legislation also promotes rationing of medical care that could lead to involuntarily denying lifesaving treatment.

The Supreme Court has incorrectly ruled that Obamacare is constitutional, pro-life groups are saying in response to the decision. They are pointing out that the need is greater now than ever to defeat pro-abortion President Barack Obama and elect a pro-life Senate that will join the House in repealing the legislation.

“All voters who care about the value and dignity of human life must do everything they can to elect Mitt Romney and a Congress who are committed to repeal of ObamaCare,” said National Right to Life President Carol Tobias. “If President Obama wins re-election, it will mean massive abortion subsidies and it will put the lives of millions at risk through systematic government-imposed rationing of lifesaving medical care.”

Tobias said today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding most of the ObamaCare law is a call-to-action for the right-to-life electorate to work to elect a Congress and president this November committed to repealing ObamaCare in 2013, in order to prevent a future in which abortion insurance will be heavily subsidized by federal taxpayers and federal bureaucrats will be authorized to ration life-saving medical treatment.

Under the enacted law, federal tax-based subsidies will begin in 2014 to subsidize millions of private insurance plans that will cover abortion-on-demand, including some plans (“multi-state plans”) that will be administered by the federal government. Under another provision of the law, the federal government could even order many plans that do not receive federal subsidies to cover abortion as a “preventive” service.  The law also created an array of other mechanisms and funding pipelines by which access to and subsidies for abortion can be expanded if President Obama wins a second term.

Moreover, few Americans realize that under ObamaCare, private citizens’ right to spend their own money to save the lives of their own families will be subject to drastic restriction, NRLC said.

Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, told LifeNews, “The Supreme Court today officially declared that our current government pays no heed to the Constitution.  Neither the President, nor Congress, nor the Supreme Court appears willing to protect life or liberty. If ever there were a time in history when the American people needed to be informed voters on Election Day, this is it.”

Priests for Life filed a lawsuit in February against the Health and Human Services mandate that all employers provide contraception to their employees free of charge. That lawsuit will continue, Pavone said.

“Priests for Life will remain vigilant on the issue of contraception,” Father Pavone said. “The mandate is a brazen attack on our religious liberty. Today’s ruling on Obamacare was a setback, but it is not the end of the battle.”

Father Shenan J. Boquet, president of Human Life International, also condemned the decision.

“Today’s ruling is confusing and very disappointing, but is in no way the end of the battle against the many injustices of the ‘Affordable Care Act,’ also known as ‘Obamacare.’ We are confident that the 12 pending federal lawsuits brought by 43 different organizations against the Obama administration’s HHS department will be validated by the Supreme Court, and that religious freedom will again be upheld in law,” he said.

He continued, “We remain very concerned about the many serious moral failings of the health care law, which have sparked a wave of opposition rallies across the nation. Under the Affordable Care Act, abortions are free of charge, but life saving medicine and treatments require a co-pay. All Americans who are on government subsidized healthcare plans (which would be almost all Americans) will be forced to pay for abortion through a hidden surcharge that insurance companies are not even allowed to tell their customers about, except in the initial sign up process. This is how radically pro-abortion the Obama administration really is, and its ‘health care reform’ policy reflects this radical stance.”

Leading pro-life lawmakers were also very disappointed with the decision.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said: “What’s important to remember is that what the Court rules on is whether something is constitutional or not, not whether it’s a good idea. And while the Court has said that the law is constitutional, it remains a bad idea for our economy, and I hope that in the fall we will have a majority here that will not just repeal this law, but replace it with real solutions that will insure more people and cost a lot less money.”

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell added: “Today’s decision makes one thing clear: Congress must act to repeal this misguided law. Obamacare has not only limited choices and increased health care costs for American families, it has made it harder for American businesses to hire. Today’s decision does nothing to diminish the fact that Obamacare’s mandates, tax hikes, and Medicare cuts should be repealed and replaced with common sense reforms that lower costs and that the American people actually want. It is my hope that with new leadership in the White House and Senate, we can enact these step-by-step solutions and prevent further damage from this terrible law.”

Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, a Republican has worked to drop the abortion-funding component of Obamacare, was also disappointed.

“While I am deeply disappointed that the law was upheld, I continue to believe that it is bad policy. Just because the Supreme Court declares something Constitutional does not mean that it is a good idea. The health care law is not the reform Americans need or deserve,” he said.

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum also weighed in on the decision.

“Today’s outcome is the worst of all scenarios. Not only are our rights being taken away and Americans are being forced to do something we don’t want to do, but now we are being burdened with the biggest permanent tax increase in our nation’s history. This is a sad day,” he said. “I believe so strongly that if we do not defeat President Obama this November and elect more conservatives in the House and Senate, our country’s future prosperity is at risk. We saw the absolute disregard President Obama showed for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Arizona immigration law, that I have no doubt that he sees today’s ruling in his favor as a mandate that he can now do whatever he chooses by any means possible.”

Abortion is woven into the healthcare law in several ways that must now be addressed including:
* Failing to prohibit the use of federal tax dollars for abortion, abortion coverage, and abortion-inducing drugs and devices.
* Pretending that the Hyde Amendment protections were enough to prohibit direct payment for abortions.
* Permitting federally-subsidized Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) to provide abortion coverage through the state insurance exchanges required in all 50 states.
* Failing to prohibit all multi-state qualified health plans from providing coverage for abortion.
* Including a “preventive care” mandate that is being used to force coverage of drugs and devices known to end life.
* Failing to provide comprehensive First Amendment conscience protections for individuals, employers, and insurance companies that have religious or moral objections to abortion.

The Alliance Defense Fund and allied legal organizations together filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. State of Florida on behalf of numerous pro-life medical groups. The brief argues that Americans should not be compelled to pay for other people’s elective abortions as required by ObamaCare.

ADF has also filed several other lawsuits challenging an Obama administration mandate under the plan that requires religious organizations to provide and pay for insurance coverage of abortion-causing drugs and devices for their employees regardless of whether the religious employers object on moral or religious grounds.