IMPORTANT UPDATE: Governor Rauner has signed House Bill 40 into law.
Instead of focusing on fixing the budget crisis, our pro-abortion legislators have worked to push this radical bill into law.
Here’s why this is such a disastrous legislation:
1) Free Medicaid abortions. No restrictions.
This bill will make each Illinoisan pay for abortions through the full nine months of pregnancy for any reason, even when the unborn child can feel pain and survive outside the womb, for those on Medicaid, and for state employees. Currently, the State Medicaid program already pays for abortions in cases of rape, incest, health and life of the mother. Now, it would also pay for abortions even if the only reason for the abortion is convenience.
2) Illinois abortions will rise.
We’re projecting that this bill could increase Illinois abortions as many as 12,000 more per year, based on data from the last time Medicaid funded abortions. That’s on top of the already 39,856 abortions per year. The ACLU admitted that 18-35% of those on Medicaid state they will not have an abortion unless it is free.
3) State spending is limitless.
There is no cap to the number of abortions that could be covered by Medicaid, and essentially no cap to the amount of taxpayer dollars spent. The General Assembly is essentially handing over a blank check to the abortion industry. The actual financial burden to the State can’t be determined, but we look to the current rates and statistics for an estimate:
In 2014 alone, Stroger Hospital, a low-income hospital in Cook County, Illinois, performed 6,338 abortions. Abortions provided to low-income women at this hospital are subsidized by Cook County tax dollars. This is about 16% of all the abortions in the state of Illinois. The current cost per abortion that Medicaid is paying right now is $1,650. (We’ll get to that in a minute). These 6,338 abortions could cost the State over $10 million ($10,637,830). This cost would now be carried by Illinois taxpayers.
But it gets worse. The last time Illinoisans paid for unrestricted Medicaid funded abortions was in the late ’70s. Approximately 12,738 abortions were paid for by Medicaid at a cost of over $1.8 million ($1,876,837). Given the current rate, abortions could cost the State over $21 million ($21,379,713).
4) Lots of room for fraud.
According to a 2016 Congressional investigation, fifty-one audits of Planned Parenthood affiliates have uncovered a shocking total of over $8.5 million ($8,552,264) in overbilling, as documented in the Congressional Panel’s report. (The Panel even remarks that their audit summary reflects a very small sample of the total Medicaid reimbursements received from Planned Parenthood). In Illinois alone, Planned Parenthood was forced to pay back $387,000 for improper or fraudulent billing. And now we’re going to give them more access to Medicaid funds? This is outrageous.
It’s also interesting to note that in 2014 (the latest statistics available), 145 abortions were covered by Medicaid. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Legislative Affairs reported that the total estimated payments for these abortions was $243,371. This means the average cost of these abortions was an outrageous $1,678. According to figures from the National Abortion Federation, the average cost of an abortion is approximately $640.
So why is the abortion industry billing taxpayers almost three times the average cost of an abortion? What is going on here?
Planned Parenthood is behind this one. They’re still reeling from losing the election so badly after spending $30 million to elect pro-abortion candidates. We need to say no to their desperate attempt to force you and me to pay for Illinois abortions.
The General Assembly is back in session, meaning the vote could happen any moment. House Bill 40 would undo a decades-old ban on taxpayer funding of abortion, costing us thousands of lives a year. There may be no legal remedy if this bill becomes law.
Stay tuned to our Facebook and website to keep updated and informed on the status of this bill.