Additional births resulting from the legislation would increase costs, the CBO said. | REUTERS CBO: Abortion bill would up deficit

Nearly every single House Republican voted last week to increase government spending and push the nation further into debt — all to limit abortion access for some women.

The official budget scorekeeper of Congress says the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks, would increase Medicaid costs by as much as $400 million.


The bill from Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), received a lot of media attention and angered some House Republicans, who had no idea why the party was voting on abortion restrictions when it is trying to make inroads with female voters. Six Democrats joined 222 House Republicans to pass the bill.

The Congressional Budget Office, which judges the budgetary impact of all legislation, says “Depending on the number of additional births under H.R. 1797, such Medicaid costs could range from about $75 million over the next 10 years to more than $400 million over that period.”

CBO officially estimates that the bill increases federal deficits by $75 million between 2014 and 2018, and $225 million between 2014 and 2023.

CBO’s cost estimate is based on this: “about three-quarters of the abortions that would occur 20 weeks or more after fertilization under current law would instead occur earlier, and the remaining one-quarter would not occur so those pregnancies would be taken to term.

“Because the costs of about 40 percent of all births are paid for by the Medicaid program, CBO estimates that federal spending for Medicaid will rise to the extent that enacting H.R. 1797 results in additional births and deliveries relative to current law,” CBO added. “In addition, some of those children would themselves qualify for Medicaid and possibly for other federal programs as well.”

Of course, $225 million is a drop in the bucket when the federal government is trillions in the hole. But increasing spending has been massively difficult for House Republicans — they even balked at spending money to repair the East Coast after Hurricane Sandy.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) office — which is charged with managing the House’s floor schedule — had no comment for the record.

A GOP leadership aide said: “I certainly hope no Democrats would see aborting healthy and viable babies as a deficit-reducing measure. That would be a terribly sad and tragic day for our nation.”

President Barack Obama said he’d veto the bill, which he said would would unacceptably restrict women’s health and reproductive rights and is an assault on a woman’s right to choose.”

This article tagged under: Abortion

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