Faith & Reflection: Voices from the Black Church and Beyond
- The House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill narrowly, including provisions to restrict federal funding for abortion services.
- The bill bans federal Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA cost-sharing funds for providers offering abortions except for rape, incest, or life-saving cases.
- It also seeks to prohibit federal funding for gender transition procedures, drawing praise from Catholic bishops and bipartisan criticism.
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(ThyBlackMan.com) The House of Representatives completed an overnight session on May 22 with a vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It passed by one very small margin — 215 to 214.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately condemned it — and expressed anger that it would restrict federal funding of abortion.
“A few hours ago, while most Americans were fast asleep, House Republicans rammed through their so-called Big Beautiful Bill through the House of Representatives, in the dead of night, in the hopes that nobody would notice,” he said on the Senate floor.
“And, of course, at the last minute, the anti-choice radicals snuck in a new provision, penalizing enrollees in private plans on ACA [Affordable Care Act] exchanges covering reproductive care,” said Schumer.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood wasn’t enough,” he said.
What would the House-passed bill do in this area?
“No federal funds that are considered direct spending and provided to carry out a State plan under title XIX of the Social Security Act (the Medicaid program) or a waiver of such a plan shall be used to make payments to a prohibited entity for items and services furnished during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, including any payments made directly to the prohibited entity or under a contract or other arrangement between a State and a covered organization,” it says.
What are the “prohibited entities” that would be denied these taxpayer-funded subsidies?
“The term ‘prohibited entity,’” explains the bill, “means an entity, including its affiliates, subsidiaries, and clinics — (A) that, as of the date of enactment of this Act … (iii) provides for abortions, other than an abortion — (I) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or (II) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed.”
As reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the bill would also prohibit the use of federally funded cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act that cover abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. The bill, says KFF, “prohibits use of the appropriated CSR funds for health plans that cover abortion services except when abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother, or if the pregnancy is a result of an act of rape or incest.”
Another section of the bill — that Schumer did not mention in his speech — is entitled “Prohibiting Federal Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) Funding For Gender Transition Procedures.” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) did speak out against this provision.
“Freedom means patients can access the range of care they find appropriate,” Merkley said in a statement to The Hill. “I’ll continue to stand with our transgender community, protect medically necessary gender-affirming care, and fight back against the Republican vision of ‘families lose, billionaires win.’”
President Donald Trump himself also alluded to this provision after the House passed the bill.
“‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ has PASSED the House of Representatives!” Trump said on Truth Social.
The Democrats, he said, “are warped in the past, hoping someday to revive Open Borders for the World’s criminals to be able to pour into our County, men to be able to play in women’s sports, and transgender for everybody.”
Three days before the House passed this bill, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops published a joint statement from Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop Robert E. Barron, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth. It was headlined “Bishops Thomas and Barron Applaud Move to Defund Abortion and ‘Gender Transition’ Industries, Call for Authentic Health Care.”
“For decades, Planned Parenthood has received government money and offered low-income women one terrible option: to end the lives of their babies,” they said. “More recently, they have used the same taxpayer funds to expand their destructive offerings, by promoting gender ideology and providing puberty blockers and hormones to minors, turning them into lifelong patients in the process.
“Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and ‘gender transition’ services with their tax dollars, and we applaud measures that will finally help to defund Planned Parenthood,” said these bishops.
“We encourage greater support for authentic, life-affirming health care providers that serve mothers and their children in need,” they said. “We urge all members of Congress and the Administration to work in good faith to protect vulnerable women and children from mutilating ‘gender transition’ services and the scourge of abortion.”
Having passed the House by one vote, the bill likely needs adjustments to pass the Senate. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who does not believe the House version does enough to cut spending and the deficit, said Sunday on CNN, “I think we have enough (Senate Republicans) to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.”
Congress should do more to cut spending and the deficit, but it must not remove from this bill the provisions that cut funding for abortion and so-called gender transitioning.
Written by Terence P. Jeffrey
Official website; http://twitter.com/terryjeffrey
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