Care2.com, May 1, 2012 by Jessica Pieklo
Last week Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and former presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) have joined forces behind yet another anti-abortion bill.
Paul, who hasn’t managed to show up for a majority of congressional votes this year due to his campaign schedule has made supporting the Stop Abortion Funding in Multi-state Exchange Plans (SAFE) Act a priority. The bill would block any multi-state health plan from offering coverage for elective abortions.
According to Paul and other Republican supporters, making sure federal funding does not go to providing comprehensive women’s health coverage is a necessity despite the fact that federal law already prohibits the use of taxpayer funding for abortion.
Under the bill the government would have to ensure that “no multi-State qualified health plan offered in an Exchange provides coverage of abortion.” Like other federal funding bans the bill allows a narrow exception in the case of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.
Given Paul’s support it’s probably safe to assume the rape exception is only in those cases of an “honest rape.”
In a final twist of hypocrisy from Paul and the other “states rights” sponsors, the bill prohibits states from pre-empting the law and guaranteeing coverage on their own. That means that the states are beholden to the federal government here, because Paul and his supporters believe that freedom from unnecessary government intrusion is apparently a right only held by men.
War on Women 
Posted on May 1, 2012