The editors of the Weekly Standard call attention to a portion of the bill that hasnโt drawn much of it:
[A]s important as defunding Planned Parenthood is for pro-life Americans, an even greater priority is cutting off Obamacareโs funding for insurance plans that cover elective abortions. The Graham-Cassidy plan just so happens to funnel the block grants through an existing health-care law to which the Hyde amendmentโa measure banning federal funding of elective abortionsโis permanently attached. While Congress could pass language defunding Planned Parenthood in the next fiscal yearโs tax-reform reconciliation bill, the Graham-Cassidy plan is the only realistic way to stop Obamacareโs funding of elective abortion.
I agree with the Standard on the question of priorities, although I would of course like to keep federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood as well. Oregon recently adopted a law forcing all insurance policies to cover abortions; the Graham-Cassidy bill would make that law practically a dead letter, since such policies would not be eligible for block-grant funding.
(Regarding the claim that reining in Obamacare cannot possibly be described as โpro-life,โ I recommend this and this, and maybe this.)






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