After the Tea-Publican House leadership failed to muster a majority among its own members for Rep. Trent Franks’ unconstitutional 20-week ban on abortions, being forced to pull the bill Wednesday night, they finally settled upon a replacement with a symbolic, but potentially far more damaging bill, HR 7. Bill PDF.
Joan McCarter at Daily Kos reports, House Republicans include a tax hike in their latest abortion bill:
[Tea-Publicans] revived their long-standing effort to codify a ban on federal funding of abortion that even extends to private insurance, and plans sold in Obamacare insurance exchanges. But it’s also a tax-hike on small businesses who provide employees with health insurance that covers abortion.
Under the SHOP exchange, a part of the Affordable Care Act, small businesses receive a tax credit if they include abortion care in their plans. Roughly 87 percent of private plans include abortion services as part of comprehensive coverage, meaning the bulk of small businesses would be hit with a tax hike if the bill, called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, were to become law.
As Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pointed out, House Republicans have shifted their attack from the thousands of women with the 20-week abortion ban to millions of women who would have this legal medical procedure stripped from their private insurance, for which they are paying.
[The bill also includes limitations on federal facilities and employees (e.g., military/veteran hospitals), and local government funding for the District of Columbia.]
We’ve been here before, regularly. They have been trying to extend the definition of “taxpayer funded” to “all tax deductions, credits or other benefits for the cost of health insurance, when that insurance includes under its plan coverage for abortion,” as David Waldman made clear four years ago, when Republicans pushed this bill.
The White House issued a veto threat, saying the legislation “would intrude on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care; increase the financial burden on many Americans; unnecessarily restrict the private insurance choices that consumers have today; and restrict the District of Columbia’s use of local funds, which undermines home rule.”
UPDATE: The bill passed on a 242-179 vote. Arizona’s congressional delegation split on a party-line vote.
Remember when “woman warrior” Martha McSally had this to say during the campaign? Fighting for Women | McSally For Congress;
As someone who has fought for women my entire life, I know first-hand that women still face many hurdles to equal treatment in our society. This is unacceptable, and as a Member of Congress, I will work to ensure that women have every opportunity-whether it’s in the workplace, the home, or the military-that men have.
With the exception if you are a woman in the military, or who lives in Washington, D.C., or who has a private health insurance plan that covers abortion services. “Woman warrior” fights for her rights — but not for yours.
But you already knew that.
I think boner is busy lawyering up for his sedition indictment that holder should go before a grand jury with.