Another Secret Attack on Women Brought to You by ... the GOP

This piece was written by my friend, Glenn Strachan. I republish it with his permission.

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A Trojan Horse Attack on State Abortion Rights

by Glenn Strachan

June 9, 2025

House Republicans have quietly added a provision to the latest reconciliation bill that would penalize states where abortion is legal by threatening to withhold critical federal health care subsidies. This move not only undermines reproductive rights but also blatantly contradicts the very rationale used by Republicans and the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

When Dobbs v. Jackson was decided, the justification was clear: abortion policy should no longer be federally mandated, but “returned to the states.” Now, just two years later, congressional Republicans are attempting to claw back that promise — not by legislating an outright national abortion ban, but by defunding access through the back door.

This new amendment targets states that require insurers to cover abortion, potentially stripping millions of residents of Affordable Care Act (ACA) cost-sharing reductions. In other words, these lawmakers are telling blue states: either drop abortion coverage or lose health care funding for your low-income citizens. It’s political extortion disguised as fiscal policy.

The Hyde Amendment already restricts federal dollars from directly funding abortion care, and the ACA bars subsidies from being used for abortions. But this provision goes even further, barring entire health plans — and by extension, entire state exchanges — from receiving federal cost-sharing help if abortion is covered. The goal is clear: to chill access to legal abortion by making it administratively and financially unfeasible.

This move is also procedurally cynical. The provision was slipped in at the last minute via a manager’s amendment, bypassing open debate. Many Republican lawmakers didn’t even know it was there — a damning indictment of the dysfunction in the House and a troubling sign of how reproductive rights are being undermined through legislative sleight of hand.

The contradiction is striking. Republicans spent years insisting that abortion was a matter of state sovereignty. But now, when states exercise that sovereignty in ways they disagree with, they are willing to use federal funding as a cudgel to force compliance. This is not federalism; it’s coercion.

Democratic officials and regulators are rightfully alarmed. If enacted, this provision could trigger legal and constitutional challenges, create massive disruptions in state marketplaces, and most critically, reduce access to both abortion and basic health care for millions.

This is not a policy debate — it’s a calculated assault on reproductive freedom, dressed up in budgetary language and buried in a must-pass bill. The American public deserves to know that the post-Dobbs war on abortion isn’t over — it’s just taken a new, more insidious form.

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Thank you, Glenn. Let’s do all that we can to make sure that the American public is made aware of these on-going surreptitious attacks on our rights.

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