Campaign Promises

Departments -> Health & Human Services -> Abortion
Item	Health & Human Services
Abortion		Grade
HE-1	The Promise: "...reproductive care is ... basic care, so it is at the center and at the heart of the plan that I propose...we're going to set up a public plan that all ... women can access if they don't have health insurance...including reproductive services..." When/Where: Candidate Obama speech before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, dated 07/17/07. Source: http://lauraetch.googlepages.com/barackobamabeforeplannedparenthoodaction Status:The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (H.R. 3590) (Public Law 111-148) was signed into law by President Obama on 03/23/10. Section 1303, as amended by Section 10104, states in part that qualified health plans may elect whether or not to cover abortions and further includes "conscience language" that prohibits qualified health plans from discriminating against any health care provider because of unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) was co-sponsor of an amendment that would have prohibited the use of federal funds "to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion." This language did not make it into the final version of the ACA which Congressman Stupak voted for anyway. Consequently, the ACA provided $317M for the Family Planning Program to serve 5.2M women and prevent 1M unintended pregnancies during FY2010 alone. Other funds in the ACA (about $11B) could be used to support abortions. This promise was fulfilled.	1.00