Abortion Access Now Sounds Alarm on Attempts to Add a Poison-Pill Abortion Coverage Ban to ACA Tax Credits

As Congress negotiates the extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, anti-abortion lawmakers are attempting to include a ban on abortion coverage for ACA marketplace plans. This move is a poison pill designed to distract any effort to address the urgent reality that tens of millions of people are seeing their premiums skyrocket and could lose their health care if Congress doesn’t act and these credits lapse. 

Leaders of Abortion Access Now issued the following statement:

“Millions are at risk of losing their health care if Congress fails to extend ACA tax credits before the end of the year. Instead of working to prevent a catastrophic spike in health care costs, some lawmakers are cynically attempting to exploit the situation by pushing new abortion restrictions on private health coverage — a direct attempt to make it harder for everyone, everywhere to get an abortion when they need one. These deeply unpopular and unworkable threats are not offered in good faith. They are an attempt to torpedo critical negotiations by falsely pitting access to abortion coverage against lower health care costs, all to justify more tax handouts to billionaires.

“This would be a first-ever federal ban on abortion coverage in private insurance plans. Any new abortion restrictions in the ACA marketplace would upend coverage for millions and disproportionately harm communities already facing systemic barriers to care. 

“Congress must stay focused on what matters: preventing millions of people from losing their health care. Lawmakers should reject efforts to use abortion as a smokescreen to justify their inaction. They must vote swiftly on a clean extension for the ACA tax credits, protect comprehensive health care coverage, and ensure that everyone can access the care they need.”