Because the current proposal doesn’t alter the Hyde Amendment, fellow OJ blogger Larry Gilbert’s overheated reading on the role of abortion in the the Public Option is probably wrong. You can read the section easily enough, but the section title is clear:
Section 222(e) Abortion Coverage Prohibited as Part of Minimum Benefits Package
Larry correctly highlighted the relevant text: “abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is permitted.” So what abortions would those be? The current law of the land on this issue, the famous 1976 Hyde Amendment, explicity bans the Department of Health and Human Services from paying for abortions. So that would be NO abortions.
Moreover, the “public plan” doesn’t mean what you might think. Quoting Politico’s Ben Smith
Nothing in this plan is simple, and the “government option” or “public plan” is only administered by the government; the actual services will be paid with the same mix of private money and vast new subsidies that will pay for private plans, some of which now cover abortion.
You obviously did not read 3962:
17 (B) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUND18
ING IS ALLOWED.—The services described in
19 this subparagraph are abortions for which the
20 expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for
21 the Department of Health and Human Services
22 is permitted, based on the law as in effect as
23 of the date that is 6 months before the begin24
ning of the plan year involved.
It refers to health insurance which had abortion benefits in it. It is Section 222(e)(4)(B)on page 111. I also recommend you read Sec. 258. It says the federal law is not changed regarding rights of conscience, but it does not prevent federal funds from being used for abortions since it is the insurance company doing it. In other words, the insurance pays and the government pays the insurance.