Cardinal O’Malley Welcomes House Passage of ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion” Act, which would codify a permanent, government-wide policy against taxpayer subsidies for abortion and abortion coverage. It also requires health plans offered under the Affordable Care Act to disclose the extent of their coverage for abortion and the amount of any surcharge for that coverage to consumers. The bill moves to the Senate for consideration.   Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, welcomed passage of the bill. In a letter to Congress, he said, “The federal government should not use its funding power to support and promote elective abortion, and should not force taxpayers to subsidize this violence. Even public officials who take a ‘pro-choice’ stand, and courts that have insisted on a constitutional ‘right’ to abortion, have agreed that the government has every right (in the Supreme Court’s words) to ‘encourage childbirth over abortion.'”