writes Benny Huang in a post about free speech in Ohio,Obamacare is an intentionally vague piece of legislation that grants enormous power to bureaucrats to make policy
particularly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
For example, nothing in the ACA specifically stipulates that employer-purchased health plans must include twenty methods of birth control. Why then did Hobby Lobby have to fight for its right not to provide four of them? Because former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius added that requirement after Obamacare had been signed into law using the authority it granted her.
Pro-lifers recognized that Obamacare allowed bureaucrats so much latitude in policy-making that it could be construed to mean virtually anything, including taxpayer-funded abortion. Considering the track record of then-HHS Secretary Sebelius, the darling of the baby-killing industry, it seemed likely that taxpayer-funded abortion would be allowed if not expressly prohibited.
Some of those pro-lifers even supported Obamacare as long as it closed the door to taxpayer-funded abortion coverage. One such supporter was Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) who proposed an amendment to the bill which would have stipulated in no uncertain terms that Obamacare funds were not to be spent on abortion. Abortion supporters balked. While still contending that the bill would not fund abortion, they refused to include the Stupak Amendment. It certainly appeared that they were leaving themselves a loophole that could be exploited at a later date by simply having Kathleen Sebelius dictate the policy they wanted.
… Four years have passed and the pro-lifers have been vindicated. The “no money for abortion” pledge was just another empty promise that President Obama made to get this piece of garbage legislation passed. In 2012, Planned Parenthood’s best friend, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, predictably decreed that taxpayer-subsidized plans would have the option of including abortion services, which means that taxpayers will not have the option of footing the bill. SBA List was correct yet the Ohio Election Commission didn’t see it that way in 2010.
