Democrat Oregon Governor Kate Brown is expected to sign House Bill 3391-B which will make abortion free for all, residents and non-residents of the state. From LifeSite News:
The law would force health insurers to cover abortions without any co-pay and give more than $10 million for abortions and other “reproductive services” to Medicaid. Pro-lifers predict that most of the $10 million will go to Planned Parenthood.Oregon has the most permissive abortion laws in the nation, with no informed consent for women, no waiting for the major surgery of abortion, no parental consent or even parental notification for minors, no ambulance-ready requirements, and no basic safeguards required for all other surgical centers.ABC News reported that in New York and other states abortion is tax-funded. “The Oregon bill is unique, however, in that patients would have access to the procedure for virtually any reason, at any time, including sex-selective and late-term abortions.”
Oh, it gets worse. Oregon allows abortion throughout the entire nine month pregnancy. This means tax dollars will pay for late-term abortions and murder of the baby if the infant survives a botched abortion.
HB 3391-B demands that insurers “cover birth control and vasectomies as well, all without co-pay.” The bill also sets aside “half a million dollars to abortions for immigrants and those not covered by insurance.”
Churches and religious charities have received an exemption “from being forced to pay for abortion insurance coverage for their employees.” But if insurers must cover abortion and birth control that kind of prevents those religious aligned organizations from providing health insurance. From Catholic News Agency:
The initial version of the bill’s religious exemptions were so narrow that the Catholic-run Providence Health System threatened to exit the state’s insurance market. The bill’s backers increased exemptions to the bill, but some objecting lawmakers said the provisions did not go far enough, the Catholic Sentinel reports. The exemptions apply to churches and other religious nonprofits.Under the bill, the Oregon Health Authority must now provide abortion coverage where religious organizations will not.
Oregon Right to Life stated that the exemption in the bill created a program “that will provide free abortions to Providence plan enrollees.” But no one knows how much that exemption will cost or what it will do to overall insurance costs.
Catholic leaders in Oregon have voiced their opposition to this infanticide bill and urged others to join them:
“By insisting on complete insurance coverage of abortion, including late-term and sex-selective abortions, the legislature shows itself intolerant of widely-held opposing views and will compel thousands of Oregonians to support what their conscience rejects,” the Oregon Catholic Conference said.“House Bill 3391 forces insurance companies to cover abortion on demand and it forces all Oregon taxpayers to help finance an extremist abortion agenda that does not enjoy majority support.”
Cullen Heroit at The Federalist points out that the bill hands Planned Parenthood a major victory and lots of cash:
There are currently 11 abortion clinics in the state of Oregon, eight of which are Planned Parenthoods. Not all of the money allocated by this bill will go toward funding elective abortion, of course, but the fact that Planned Parenthood was a sponsor of this legislation makes it clear that they will benefit significantly from it.At a time when a large chunk of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding is in danger of being cut off, this bill bolsters the funding they receive from taxpayers. It’s no secret that Planned Parenthood is basically an extension of the Democratic Party (remember how much money PP threw into that run-off election in Georgia last month?), and this bill passed the Senate on a party-line vote.
Jonathan Lockwood, the communications director for the Senate Republican Caucus, described the bill as “a political gift card to Planned Parenthood.” Oregon Right to Life Executive Director Gayle Atteberry agreed. From The Washington Times:
“This terrible legislation is just another example of how Oregon’s largest abortion provider’s only real concern is for their financial bottom line,” said Ms. Atteberry in a statement. “The Oregon Health Authority testified [Thursday] that HB 3391-B will provide almost $500,000 more for abortions. Make no mistake: most of this money is going to Planned Parenthood.”
[h/t @galtsgirl]
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