On Saturday, November 20, 2004, the House and Senate passed the FY 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Unfortunately, the final version of the bill included Rep. Weldon's (R-FL) refusal clause language which reads:
Section 508: None of the funds made available in this Act may be made available to a Federal agency or program, or to a State or local government, if such agency, program, or government subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
(2) In this subsection, the term `health care entity' includes an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.
Even though the Senate version of the bill did not include this language, Senate appropriators were unable to remove, or even alter the House-passed language during conference negotiations. However, many members of the House and Senate weighed in strongly in favor of removing the language. On Friday, ten women Senators sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Chair Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and many members spoke against the rider. Senators signing the letter included Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D-AR), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Hillary Clinton(D-NY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
Here are some ways the clause will affect providers:
- State and local governments will be forced to choose between enforcing their own abortion funding laws or forfeiting billions of dollars of federal funding for health, education, and numerous other programs.
- The Title X program will be eviscerated. Current federal law requires federally funded family planning facilities to provide full options counseling including information about abortion and referrals upon request; these will no longer be requirements for receipt of federal funds.
- Medicaid coverage for abortions in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment will be in jeopardy. HMOs that provide Medicaid care for low-income women will be allowed to claim "discrimination" and elect not to cover abortions required to be funded currently under the Hyde Amendment.
- State laws requiring hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims could be eroded.
Other notable spending provisions in Omnibus Bill:
- The bill included an increase in abstinence-only education funding. $105 million was appropriated for abstinence-only an increase of $30 million but short of the President's request of $186 million.
- One positive appropriation was an increase in Title X family planning funds. The final bill includes $288 million for Title X, an increase of $10 million from FY 2004.
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