EXCLUSIVE: Obamacare Plans Use Taxpayer Dollars For Abortions, Watchdog Finds

WASHINGTON—A nonpartisan federal watchdog on Tuesday revealed that Obamacare subsidizes abortions, upending a longtime Democrat talking point, The Daily Wire can first report.

Nearly a third of Affordable Care Act plans cover abortions, the Government Accountability Office found. Of the 6,655 qualified health plans offered on Obamacare exchanges, 1,719 cover “non-excepted abortion services,” meaning elective abortions that are not the result of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life. States that have banned abortion prohibit exchange plans from covering these services.

About 4.4 million Americans are enrolled in Obamacare plans that cover abortions, the report found.

“As a strong defender of life, I find the results of today’s GAO report deeply concerning,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told The Daily Wire. “American taxpayer dollars should not be used to subsidize elective abortions in violation of the longstanding Hyde Amendment.”

Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Republicans have long said that the Hyde Amendment — which bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in cases where the unborn baby is conceived through rape or incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger — should apply to Obamacare plans. Critics say that Democrats have misled the public about when Obamacare plans are subject to Hyde rules.

“Today’s GAO report confirms the very concerns that Republicans have raised for over fifteen years,” New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith told The Daily Wire. “The ACA fails to apply the longstanding and bipartisan Hyde Amendment law, which protects taxpayer dollars from funding abortion, both directly and through federal health plans.”

Earlier this year, some Republicans pushed back strongly when President Donald Trump suggested that they should be flexible on the Hyde Amendment. Smith, who leads the congressional Pro-Life Caucus, is urging the president to sound the alarm over Obamacare coverage of abortion unless and until Congress can pass legislation that mandates full Hyde protections for all ACA plans.

“American taxpayers deserve complete transparency and truthfulness as to where their hard-earned dollars are going — and under the ACA as it currently stands, that’s just not possible,” Smith said.

Smith is calling on President Trump to reissue the Exchange Program Integrity Final Rule, which would ensure that “consumers understand whether a plan subsidizes elective abortion.” The congressman argues that Democrats have for years deceived pro-life Americans for years about whether ACA plans cover abortions, and that, as a result, Obamacare has “strong-armed” Americans into “paying for health plans that do not respect the sanctity of life.”

“The ACA allows premium tax credits to be directed towards health insurance coverage that includes elective abortion,” Smith says. “Federal taxpayer dollars — even from individuals living in pro-life states — are subsidizing plans that include elective abortion coverage for over 4.4 million people. The report also found that some insurance issuers failed to comply with the ACA’s consumer transparency provision, which requires plans to prominently disclose abortion coverage.”

Several pieces of legislation floating around Capitol Hill could subject Obamacare plans to the Hyde Ammendment, a Senate aide told The Daily Wire. One is the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which would codify Hyde across the federal government. That legislation is led by Smith in the House of Representatives and Roger Wicker in the Senate, but likely lacks support across the Republican conference.

Republican leadership under Senator Mitch McConnell first requested that the GAO review Obamacare’s coverage of abortion in 2014. A 2014 report found that 1,036 qualified health plans in 28 states covered abortions, while 1,062 did not. The 2026 report found that 1,719 of 6,655 qualified health plans in the 50 states and the District of Columbia covered abortions.

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