Measure Would Allow $1 Tax Checkoff to Help Pay for Medicaid Abortions

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would allow taxpayers to earmark $1 of their income tax payment to help pay for abortions for poor women under Medicaid.

Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, currently is not permitted to pay for abortions except when the mother’s life would be endangered by carrying a baby to full term. Every appropriation bill since 1976 has included a ban on Medicaid funding for other abortions.

Schroeder said in a House speech that her bill would “restore, voluntarily, abortion funding to those women previously eligible under Medicaid. My bill would ensure that poor women have equal access to complete pregnancy-related medical assistance.”