Home Passes Democrat Bill Funding Abortions in Obamacare, Most Republicans Vote No
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Democrat-led bill extending Obamacare subsidies that pro-life advocates condemn as forcing taxpayers to fund elective abortions on demand, with most Republicans voting against the measure and vowing to block it in the Senate.
Democrats forced a vote on theb ill by getting a few Republicans to sign a procedural motion requiring a vote.
The legislation, pushed by pro-abortion House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., extends enhanced Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) tax credits for three years without Hyde Amendment protections that prohibit federal funding for abortions. It passed 230-196, with every Democrat in favor and at least 17 Republicans joining them, defying GOP leadership.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser urged Republicans to defeat the bill, stating: “Abortion is not health care and the Hyde Amendment is non-negotiable to protect unborn children and taxpayers from forced funding of abortion on demand. This has been the consistent stance of the pro-life movement, backed by the strong consensus of Americans across partisan lines, for 50 years.”
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Dannenfelser praised House GOP leaders for opposing the measure: “We thank Speaker Johnson and House GOP leadership for continually reinforcing their commitment that no one should be forced to fund the destruction of innocent human lives. We have equal confidence in Leader Thune to stand strong against any retreat on Hyde, should such a plan ever reach the Senate.”
She warned of political consequences: “The pro-life base must never be taken for granted, but especially not in a midterm election year when turnout makes all the difference with close margins. Any and all votes to extend COVID-era Obamacare subsidies without Hyde protections will be a decisive factor in SBA Pro-Life America’s political engagement in both primaries and the general election in 2026.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a leading pro-life voice, criticized the bill for continuing to subsidize plans covering abortion. “Hyde Amendment protections need to be added to this bill,” Smith said.
“Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the killing of an unborn child by dismemberment or baby poison pills.”
Smith described abortion procedures vividly: “The so-called abortion pill—mifepristone—is baby poison that kills the unborn infant by starving the innocent child to death, and whose body is often flushed down the toilet.” He also condemned dismemberment abortions, which he described as a method that “tears the child’s fragile body to pieces and includes decapitation.”
“Abortion is the polar opposite of health care. Abortion is not health care unless one construes the precious life of an unborn child to be analogous to a tumor to be excised or a disease to be vanquished,” Smith said. “Do not ignore or trivialize the battered victim in the womb. Unborn babies need Members of Congress to be their friend and advocate, not powerful adversaries.”
The bill now faces steep odds in the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said: “I don’t think there’s an appetite to do a straight-up extension… But we’ll see what happens from the working group, and if they can come up with something that has reforms.”
Pro-life groups noted that the original Obamacare law and Biden-era expansions lacked Hyde safeguards, allowing taxpayer subsidies for plans that include abortion coverage in many states.
