Federal watchdog: Taxpayer subsidies support Obamacare plans covering abortion

More than one in four Obamacare health insurance plans supported by federal subsidies cover elective abortion, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Sept. 15.

The nonpartisan federal watchdog found that 1,719, or 26%, of the 6,655 qualified health plans offered through Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges in 2026 covered “non-excepted abortion services” — abortions performed in circumstances other than rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s life.

About 4.4 million people, or 24% of exchange enrollees, had enrolled in plans offering that coverage as of June, according to preliminary data cited in the report.

“This GAO report confirms what CatholicVote has known since 2010: Obamacare pays for abortion,” CatholicVote Director of Government Affairs Tom McClusky told Zeale News. “The Hyde Amendment is the gold standard; however, this report shows it is not enough anymore.”

Although federal subsidies do not directly pay for abortions under the ACA, Republicans and pro-life groups argue that using them to subsidize insurance plans that include elective abortion coverage violates the principle behind the Hyde Amendment. The decades-old amendment prohibits federal dollars from paying for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life. 

“Today’s GAO report confirms the very concerns that Republicans have raised for over fifteen years: the ACA fails to apply the longstanding and bipartisan Hyde Amendment law, which protects taxpayer dollars from funding abortion, both directly and through federal health plans,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a Catholic, said in a Sept. 15 press release. 

McClusky called on the White House to “eliminate all funds going to support abortion” and on Congress to pass the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. The legislation would make Hyde-style restrictions permanent across the federal government and prohibit federal subsidies from helping consumers purchase health plans that include elective abortion coverage. 

Smith similarly renewed his call to apply the Hyde Amendment’s restrictions to the ACA, saying taxpayers “should not be forced to subsidize plans that cover the elective killing of an unborn child by dismemberment or baby poison pills.”

He cited an estimate that the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million lives since its initial passage. The amendment will mark its 50th anniversary Sept. 30.

Smith also urged President Donald Trump to reissue the 2019 Exchange Program Integrity Final Rule, which required insurers to send separate bills for elective abortion coverage and the remainder of an enrollee’s premium. Federal courts invalidated the separate-billing requirement before it took effect in 2020, and the Biden administration formally repealed it in 2021.

“For far too long, pro-life Americans have been deceived by the ACA and strong-armed into paying for health plans that do not respect the sanctity of life,” Smith said. “American taxpayers deserve complete transparency and truthfulness as to where their hard-earned dollars are going — and under the ACA as it currently stands, that’s just not possible.”