{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=361312", "Rep. Smith says Obamacare Massively Violates Hyde Amendment, but Notes Most 'Multi-State Plans' Exclude Abortion", "2013-11-13", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "\u201cRollout of the Obamacare exchanges revealed that many health insurance plans throughout the nation will subsidize abortion on demand\u2014even late term abortions,\u201d said Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), Co-Chairman of the Congressional Pro-life Caucus. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cBillions of taxpayers\u2019 dollars will now be handed out as credits to buy pro-abortion health insurance\u2014a clear violation of the Hyde Amendment\u2019s fundamental principle of restricting funds to abortion subsidizing health insurance plans.\u00a0At its core, the Hyde Amendment has two parts.\u00a0It prohibits funding for abortion and funding for any insurance plan that includes abortion except in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother,\u201d Smith said. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cObamacare further breaks with longstanding law by establishing new abortion surcharges and an unseemly marketing secrecy clause. The new law requires premium payers to be assessed an abortion surcharge every month to pay for abortions.\u00a0But many pro-life Americans may unwittingly purchase pro-abortion plans because of a marketing secrecy clause,\u201d said Smith. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cFor pro-life individuals seeking health insurance on the exchange in the states with Multi-State Plans available, it will be a relief to know that with only two exceptions, any of the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans with \u2018Multi-State\u2019 in their title will exclude elective abortion,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0He also noted that \u201cin many cases Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans that do not include the words \u2018Multi-State\u2019 in their title will include elective abortion.\u00a0 Since abortion coverage is not clearly identified on the exchange websites, consumers may have difficulty identifying which plans exclude abortion.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In response to a letter spearheaded by Rep. Smith (R-NJ), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has confirmed that all but two of the plans with \u201cMulti-State Plan\u201d in their title and sold on the Obamacare exchanges exclude elective abortion coverage. In a letter, OPM made this important clarification regarding Multi-State Plans, which constitute a small segment of just over 150 of the plans sold under Obamacare. Which of the thousands of other Obamacare plans cover abortion remains unknown.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen searching the many more plans available on their state\u2019s exchange pro-life Americans remain unable to ascertain which plans, if any, exclude abortion.\u00a0It is an outrage that Members of Congress had to write to OPM just to learn whether abortion is included in the currently available multi-state plans, which are just a small subset of plans.\u00a0While it is a step in the right direction to have information about this one set of plans, Americans continue to be left in the dark regarding the thousands of other plans sold on the federally facilitated marketplace and the state-run exchanges,\u201d said Smith. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The OPM letter also specifies that only the States and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can control whether abortion benefit information is displayed to consumers shopping in the Marketplace. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt is up to President Obama to direct HHS to inform consumers about abortion coverage in Obamacare plans.\u00a0His law already breaks with the decades old Hyde Amendment by allowing federal subsidies for plans that include abortion, now he won\u2019t even give consumers the ability to make an informed choice,\u201d Smith said. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cAbortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act,\u201d (H.R. 3279) was introduced by Smith to require prominent, transparent disclosure of abortion coverage for each plan offered on an exchange.\u00a0 It also requires that the amount of the abortion surcharge be clearly identified for each plan that includes elective abortion.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=361312"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.351881004869938, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}