Michele Bachmann claimed that the Affordable Care Act would allow Planned Parenthood to perform “chemical abortion,” during Saturday night’s Thanksgiving Family Forum hosted by the FAMiLY Leader. The claim is a complete misreading of health reform’s regulations, which would require insurers to cover women’s preventive health services without additional cost sharing. Watch it:
The rule is based on recommendations from experts at the Institute of Medicine and would provide services like well-woman visits, screening for gestational diabetes, sexually-transmitted infection counseling, and FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling at no additional costs. Bachmann is referring to two emergency contraceptives — Plan B and Ella — that don’t disrupt a pregnancy that has already begun. The medication works by primarily inhibiting ovulation (it can also theoretically prevent implantation of a fertilized egg). Conservatives argue that this is an early form of abortion, although the medical community disagrees and sees theses kinds of contraceptives as birth control devices.
