As the idea of universal health care, or “Medicare for All,” gains support among Democrats, a U.S. Senator promised that taxpayer funding for abortions will be included the plan.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a pro-abortion Democrat from Connecticut, is one of nearly 20 supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ universal healthcare bill.
While introducing the legislation Wednesday, Blumethal said their plan would eliminate the Hyde Amendment and other abortion restrictions, CNS News reports.
“[T]he women of America … have been denied health care too long because of restrictions like the Hyde Amendment,” Blumenthal said. “Consider the Hyde Amendment history if we pass Medicare for All. And all those other restrictions on reproductive rights.”
The Hyde Amendment is a longstanding federal rule that prohibits taxpayer funding for most abortions through Medicaid. In the past four decades, it has saved more than 1 million children from abortion.
Hyde has had decades of strong, bipartisan support in Washington, D.C. and among the general public, but abortion activists have made it a key target. They want the government to support abortions up to birth for any reason and to force taxpayers to pay for them. If they succeed, an estimated 33,000 more unborn babies would lose their lives to abortion every year in America.
Here’s more from CNN:
Sanders’ plan, though dead-on-arrival in a Republican-controlled Congress, offers a blueprint for fundamentally reshaping the American health care system by moving the country to a government-run, single-payer program.
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Under Sanders’ proposal, Americans would receive a “Universal Medicare card” that would be a ticket to comprehensive health care services, including hospital stays, doctor visits, substance abuse treatment, dental, vision and reproductive care — including abortion.
On Wednesday, pro-abortion California Sen. Kamala Harris specified that the legislation would cover Americans “from the day of birth,” a strong hint that unborn babies would not be protected from abortion at any stage of pregnancy.
The Democratic Party supports taxpayer funding of abortions for any reason up to birth. For the first time, it adopted a platform in 2016 calling for support of taxpayer funding for abortions and an end to the Hyde Amendment.
In June, The Washington Post wrote this about Sanders’ proposed legislation: “… when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed a ‘Medicare for all’ health plan in his presidential campaign, the nonpartisan Urban Institute figured that it would raise government spending by $32 trillion over 10 years, requiring a tax increase so huge that even the democratic socialist Mr. Sanders did not propose anything close to it.”
According to CNN, the plan would cost about $1.4 trillion annually and would not cover long-term health care. Sanders proposed a 2.2 percent income tax increase and other tax increases to cover the cost, the report states.
Other supporters of Sanders’ bill include: Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), according to CNS.
