Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing legislation this week that would fully ban coverage of abortion and gender transition care for minors within the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Fox News Digital has learned.
While existing law prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Hyde Amendment, many plans on the ACA exchanges still offer abortion coverage via various state-level loopholes and separate bill schemes. Hawley’s legislation would expressly state that no ACA healthcare plan can cover an abortion procedure, except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the life of the mother.
The legislation would similarly ban plans from offering coverage for gender transition care for minors, both in the form of drugs or procedures.
‘It’s time to ban abortion and gender transitions for minors on the healthcare exchanges,’ Hawley said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘No more loopholes.’
The legislative push comes as the Senate is already set to be focused on the ACA in the coming weeks, with a deadline for extending Obamacare subsidies looming with the Nov. 1 open enrollment date.
Democrats are already raising their voices about pushing through an extension, but Senate Republicans have said they’re open to negotiating a deal on the subsidies — with reforms — only after the government reopens.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his fellow Democrats have blocked Republican attempts to end the government shutdown eight times since Oct. 1. Schumer argues Republicans must come to the table with concessions, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says the opposition’s demands are unreasonable.
‘Democrats like to whine that Republicans aren’t negotiating, but negotiation, Mr. President, is what you do when each side has a list of demands and you need to meet in the middle,’ Thune said on the Senate floor Tuesday. ‘Republicans, as I and a lot of other people pointed out, haven’t put forward any demands. Only Democrats have made demands. And by the way, very expensive demands.’
Republicans say Democrats are demanding that the Senate undo a total of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts from the ‘big, beautiful bill’ and claw back funding for NPR and PBS to give, in part, to illegal immigrants.
If the shutdown extends past the Nov. 1 deadline, those one ACA coverage plans could see their premiums skyrocket. It would also make this year’s shutdown the longest in American history, eclipsing the previous record set under former President Bill Clinton between late 1995 and early 1996. That shutdown lasted 21 days and was over a budget dispute between Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report