Over 100 House Democrats have co-sponsored a pro-abortion bill that would fundamentally transform the existing healthcare system and provide universal federal funding for abortion on demand. The “Medicare for All” bill, unveiled on Wednesday by lead sponsor Rep. Pramila Jayapal, would strip away long-standing pro-life protections against federal funding for abortion, including many prohibitions on funding abortion providers like Planned Parenthood in individual pro-life states.
The radical initiative, which critics point out has no clear funding mechanism, would charge no premiums, copays, or deductibles for any service, including abortion on demand. It would abolish private health insurance and enforce a single-payer government healthcare system. By doing so, it would also overturn the Hyde Amendment, a pro-life provision passed every year since 1976 that prohibits federal funding for abortion on demand. The Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates that the Hyde Amendment saves an average of 60,000 preborn human lives each year.
READ: Democratic Party wants to kill Hyde Amendment, which has saved 2 million lives
Speaking on a call with Reporters on Wednesday, Rep. Jayapal described the bill. “I think this ‘Medicare for all’ bill really makes it clear what we mean by ‘Medicare for all.’ We mean a complete transformation of our health care system,” Jayapal said, according to NBC News. “We mean a system where there are no private insurance companies that provide these core comprehensive benefits that will be covered through the government.”
Democrats’ “Medicare for all” bill would end Medicare as we know it and force everyone into a single government-run system. The plans that more than 170 million Americans currently rely on would be made illegal. No choice, no options, and no alternatives allowed.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) February 28, 2019
The proposed legislation comes as a February 2019 poll indicated that 80% of all Americans, including 64% of Democrats, support at least some restrictions on abortion. Under this plan, conscience rights would be eliminated not only for pro-life physicians, but also every pro-life taxpayer.
Pushing a radical abortion agenda is in keeping with the Democratic platform, which in 2016 included the most pro-abortion ideology of any previous year, including language to overturn the Hyde amendment.
Although it is unclear how far the bill will advance under current House Democrat leadership, the broadly-sponsored initiative foreshadows the potential for such extreme pro-abortion provisions to become more mainstream in the lead up to the 2020 elections. Already several Democrat presidential candidates for 2020 — including Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand — have endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ similar Medicare for All legislation. Like the radical House proposal, Sanders’ version of Medicare for All would mandate federal funding for abortion on demand and would also abolish the Hyde Amendment — a plan immediately praised by Planned Parenthood when first rolled out in 2017.
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