Bills
| 3.23.22

No Federal Funding for Abortion Services (With Exceptions) (H.R. 7)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 7?

(Updated July 9, 2019)

This bill would ban taxpayer funding from being used for abortion services. Through changes in the Hyde Amendment, the bill would also ban federal funds from being applied to health coverage plans that include abortion services. 

The bill would require insurance companies to disclose which plans offer abortion coverage. Consequently, businesses that offer their employees health plans with abortion services through the Affordable Care Act would have to pay an additional tax. 

It would also permanently prohibit the District of Columbia from using locally generated tax revenue to offer abortion services to local low-income women.

Federal abortion funding would be authorized for cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening birth complications, but no tax dollars could be used for any other type of abortion.

Argument in favor

This bill would protect the innocent lives of unborn babies and the healthcare providers who do not wish to participate in abortions.

Argument opposed

Tramples women's reproductive freedom and access to healthcare. Disproportionately impacts people in lower socio-economic situations.

Impact

Women (especially those below the poverty line) who want the right to affordable abortion services, employers who offer employees health care plans, female employees, insurance companies, Pro and anti-abortion activist organizations, and physicians/medical facilities that offer abortion services.

Cost of H.R. 7

According to a CBO estimate of this bill's counterpart in the 113th Congress, this legislation would have a negligible effect on direct spending over the 2014-2024 period.

Additional Info

Of Note: The Hyde Amendment — currently not permanent law, but a "rider" usually attached to appropriation bills — already bans federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services from being used for abortion services, except for in cases of incest and rape.

Political battles over abortion have mostly played out on the state level: Republican state officials have passed 205 statutes restricting abortions over the past three years, including measures that force a woman considering abortion to undergo an ultrasound. That said, many members of Congress have also taken steps to restrict access to abortion services on a national level.

This fight swung in favor of anti-abortion activists when the Supreme Court made its ruling on . The court’s decision allows businesses to exclude coverage for contraceptives from employee health insurance if this violates an employer’s religious principles.

Despite these restrictions, abortions are not an uncommon experience for American women — one in three women will have had an abortion by the time they reach age 45. Women who don’t use contraceptives, or who have difficulty accessing contraceptives, account for more than half of all abortions.

Although abortion is still a polarizing topic, polls show that at least half of Americans think abortions should be legal under certain circumstances, and 28 percent believe they should be legal under any circumstances.

Pro-choice activists claim that the Hyde Amendment and other anti-abortion measures disproportionately affect women of color and immigrants who rely almost entirely on public funding for abortion services.


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(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)