Politico is reporting that “the Republican National Committee will no longer offer employees an insurance plan that covers abortion after POLITICO reported Thursday that the anti-abortion RNC’s policy has covered the procedure since 1991”:
“Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose,” Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. “I don’t know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled.” Steele has told the committee’s director of administration to opt out of coverage for elective abortion in the policy it uses from Cigna. Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna, and two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
Of course Steele doesn’t know why “this policy existed in the past” for the same reason why Focus on the Family, one of the nation’s largest religious right organizations, didn’t know that it paid premiums to an insurance company that also offered abortion coverage: they don’t care. They’re using ‘abortion’ to manufacturing outrage, derail health reform and energize the pro-life base.
Even they don’t believe that purchasing insurance coverage that includes abortion is an abomination. Nor do they believe the argument made in the Stupak-Pitts amendment — that paying premiums to an insurance policy that offers abortion coverage is indirectly subsidizing abortion. As Steven Benen points out, while the RNC may have opted-out of the abortion benefit, it is still “taking Republican money and giving it to an insurance company through premiums. That company will then use its pool of money to pay for abortion services, not for RNC employees, but for other customers.”
The Republican Party does not believe in the Stupak Amendment; it believes in opt-outs…