Wisconsin’s Kind, Obey Play Roles in Health Care Reform

Congressman Ron Kind of Wisconsin was one of three Democrats to vote against Obamacare in the House Ways and Means Committee.   It is unclear whether funding for abortion was a consideration for Kind but he essentially voted for what Wisconsin Right to Life is promoting — vote against a health care plan that doesn’t specifically exclude abortion mandates and subsidies.

Congressman David Obey put out an HHS appropriations bill which includes the Hyde Amendment, conscience protection for health care workers, and language preventing the destruction of human embryos for research.   This is very welcome news!  Wisconsin Right to Life engineered a full court press in the Obey district to urge him to include the right-to-life provisions that are annually placed into appropriations bills.

A word of caution.  Some in the pro-life movement are claiming that with the Hyde Amendment in place, there is no need to specifically exclude abortion in Obamacare.   “This is a dodge,” says Doug Johnson, Legislative Director for National Right to Life.  “The Hyde Amendment is not a permanent law, but merely a ‘limitation amendment’ that is patched on to the annual appropriations bill for Health and Human Services.”

Johnson adds that H.R. 3200, the House version of Obamacare, “directly appropriates massive subsidies for premiums and cost-sharing that would not flow through the HHS appropriations bill and thus would not be subject to the Hyde Amendment, even in the short term.”

Barbara Lyons