How does the Stupak amendment fail?
It changes the federal role, for a start. It goes beyond the Hyde amendment, which says that federal funds can’t be used for abortion. It effectively causes there to be no abortion coverage in the exchange, which bans you from using private premiums, which is unprecedented. It also challenges long-standing policies regarding the segregation of funds. Even religious organizations are expected to be reliable in separating federal funds they receive from religious practice and proselytizing. The community service block grant says that religious organizations have to segregate those funds in a separate account from non-federal funds. If you apply the logic of the Stupak amendment, this system fails. In fact, the logic of the Stupak-Pitts amendment not only rejects the segregation scheme, but also the scheme whereby federal dollars are consistently used to subsidize insurance through the employer tax exclusion, the subsidy for health savings accounts, and flexible spending account. Those pr
