Contrary to the federal law, the Office of Personnel Management ruled Monday that members of Congress and their staffs will be able to buy health care plans that pay for abortions, even though the premiums are funded largely by taxpayer money.
Under the terms of Obamacare, lawmakers and their aides are required to ditch their government-sponsored plans and buy insurance on state-based health care exchanges, though unlike most people on the exchanges, the staffers and members will have most of the costs of their premiums paid by their employer — in this case, taxpayers.
Federal law prevents taxpayer money from being used to pay for abortions, the OPM, in an effort to side step the law, said the health care plans offered through the exchange were private. The agency also said it will make sure the money is segregated so that the portion that pays for abortions comes out of the employees’ own contributions, which amounts to about a quarter of the premiums.
“While plans with such coverage may be offered on an Exchange, OPM can and will take appropriate administrative steps to ensure that the cost of any such coverage purchased by a member of Congress or a congressional staffer from a designated [exchange] is accounted for and paid by the individual rather than from the government contribution, consistent with the general prohibition on federal funds being used for this purpose,” OPM said in its ruling. It still breaks the law.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican, said OPM is violating a law he wrote in 1983 that prohibits OPM from paying any expenses to administer plans that cover abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.
“You can’t break the law, Mr. President, and just issue a final rule as if somehow you’re comporting with the law,” Mr. Smith told The Washington Times. “We don’t want to subsidize abortion on demand, and the public is absolutely with us.”
Mr. Smith said his law, which has been in effect for all but two years since 1983, has a long legislative history that is very clear, and he said the Obama administration ignored it.
He said he has asked lawyers in the House to see whether a lawsuit could be filed and that pro-life groups also are taking a look.
Contraception and abortion issues have bedeviled President Obama’s health care law from the start. In 2010, when it was just a bill poised for final passage, pro-life Democrats balked and insisted on a special executive order from Mr. Obama guaranteeing federal funds wouldn’t be spent on abortion.
More recently, the Obama administration ruled that sterilization and birth control, including emergency contraception that many pro-lifers denounce as potential abortifacients, are essential services that all health plans must cover. The Obama administration favors killing children at the expense of religious liberty.
Over the weekend, House Republicans included language in a stopgap spending bill designed to keep the government running that would have halted the contraceptive mandate for a year.
