Wasserman-Schultz Calls Abortion Bill Outrageous
WASHINGTON (CBS4) - South Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz criticized GOP leaders in Congress for proposing a new federal policy on abortion that she said was "nothing short of a tax increase."
"The Republicans are proposing a tax increase on all women because in their anti-women legislation, they would take away the tax benefit from all small businesses if their health insurance offers abortion coverage," Wasserman-Schultz told the progressive website Think Progress.
According to Wasserman-Schultz, 87 percent of all small business health insurance companies offer abortion coverage. She claimed that as Republicans target abortion in H.R. 3, that they are taking away tax credits and future tax credits from small businesses.
"It's outrageous," Wasserman-Schultz said. "The Republicans are maintaining and proponents of this legislation are maintaining that all they are doing is codifying the status quo and prohibiting federal funding of abortions. This legislation goes much further."
Wasserman-Schultz also pointed out how Republicans, who typically champion keeping government out of the personal lives of people, have no problem getting into the most intimate aspects of women's lives.
"It reaches deep into the personal lives of all American women, of all small business owners and twists the Republican nose into the business of people who need insurance and also small business owners who want to provide coverage for their employees," Wasserman-Schultz said.
The abortion bill, proposed by New Jersey Representative Christopher Smith, would make permanent parts of the Hyde rules that dealt with federal funding for abortion. The House has also passed a complete defunding of any government help for Planned Parenthood.
According to Bloomberg News, if a woman can't use an itemized deduction for an abortion, she will in effect pay higher taxes. Similar rules would be applied to health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts under the GOP legislation.
