Comment

HR 3 would increase taxes on women who have abortions

8
KingKenrod3/20/2011 1:11:00 am PDT

I don’t see how this is much different from the current situation. Before HCR, the Hyde Amendment banned federal funding of abortions except for the rape/incest/life of the mother exception. If a woman received a subsidized abortion, she has to indicate on Medicare paperwork whether the abortion qualifies for the subsidy - hence, if this subsidy in any way affects her tax return, the IRS can audit it. Yes, they can audit any medical expense or subsidy to determine if the taxpayer qualified. Of course, the IRS may have “internal” rules about avoiding this issue.

But now with HCR (and Obama’s executive order), because the federal government provides subsidies for private insurance, not just Medicare, the reach on the abortion issue goes into these private plans…in other words, isn’t this a problem even without the GOP shenanigans? And even if the Hyde Amendment were completely dropped, any woman who had an abortion subsidized by taxpayers could still be audited on the issue (ie forced to justify the expense to an IRS agent).