Request to Assist Efforts to Pass H.B. 818 in the Pa. State Senate

From Mike McMonagle, President

I seek your participation in efforts to pass H.B. 818, which is Obamacare opt-out legislation.  These efforts consist mainly of persuading six Democrat Pa. Senators with pro-life records to commit to vote against weakening amendments to be offered by Senator Jay Costa, the Minority Leader in the Pa. Senate.  I continue with some history and context of this issue.

Why this Legislation is Needed

The passage of this legislation became imperative to prevent state and/or federal government subsidies for health insurance plans to be offered on the Pa. exchange to be established under Obamacare in 2014.  Vast empirical evidence indicates that such subsidies will increase the number of abortions committed in our state.

Why this Legislation did not Pass During the 2011-2012 Term

On June 7, 2011, the Pa. Senate passed this legislation by a 37-12 vote after defeating weakening amendments.  The Pa. House Insurance Committee then passed S.B. 3 by a 22-2 vote on June 22, 2011.

However, rather than run S.B. 3 on the Pa. House floor, with the acquiescence of Pa. House pro-life leaders, Pa. House Majority Leader, Rep. Mike Turzai, drafted the exact same bill, H.B. 1977, the Pa. House Health Committee passed H.B. 1977 on December 5, 2011 and the full Pa. House passed H.B. 1977 on December 12, 2011.  Rep. Turzai took this action because he gave priority to this legislation having the title "House Bill" than achieving the pro-life public policy.

An impasse then ensued to the detriment of the pro-life cause in our state.  Pa. Senate President Joseph Scarnati and Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi refused to run H.B. 1977 in the Senate and House Speaker Sam Smith and Majority Leader Mike Turzai refused to run S.B. 3 in the House.  In August 2012, Gov. Corbett promised me that he would intervene to break this impasse, but failed to act on that promise.

Efforts Renew During the 2013-2014 Term

On March 14, 2013, other Pa. pro-life leaders and I met with Senate President Scarnati and House Speaker Smith.  As a result of these meetings, we believed that that these leaders had reached an agreement to run S.B. 3 as the legislative vehicle to pass Obamacare abortion opt-out legislation.

So, on April 10, 2013, the Pa. Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Don White, passed this legislation, again titled S.B. 3.  But, Pa. House Majority Leader Turzai again indicated that he would not run S.B. 3 in the Pa. House and Speaker Smith was not willing to overrule him.  So, in a great act of statesmanship, Senators White, Scarnati and Pileggi agreed to run H.B. 818 (the exact same bill as S.B 3) in the Pa. Senate.  By the end of April 2013, the Pa. House Health Committee, the Appropriations Committee and the full House had passed H.B. 818 after defeating several weakening amendments.

On May 7, 2013, the Pa. Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed H.B. 818 by a 9-5 vote.  This bill is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it very likely will pass when brought to a vote.  Once passed in that Committee, it will go to the full Senate.

The Unexpected Problem in the Pa. Senate

The problem that has developed in passing H.B. 818 in the Pa. Senate is obtaining assurance that the weakening amendments, likely to be offered by the Pa. Senate Minority Leader, Jay Costa, will be defeated on the Senate floor.  There are two principle weakening amendments.

The first amendment is adding a "health exception" to the current exceptions in H.B. 818, which are life of the mother, rape and incest.  These exceptions are the same as our current Medicaid funding restrictions.  Under Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade and vast empirical evidence, a "health exception" includes "social reasons" and this means anything.  This amendment would render the abortion restrictions in the bill meaningless.

The other likely weakening amendment is to declare that these restrictions do not apply to private plans.  This amendment is oxymoronic, i.e. self-contradictory, because, under the Obamacare exchange, there are no totally private plans.  At a minimum, they all receive government subsidies for their administrative costs.

Sen. Costa also makes the false argument that H.B. 818 is "unnecessary."  He, and his allies, have decided to ignore the insidious reality of the Obamacare legislation.

Without the passage of H.B. 818, new taxpayer funding of abortion in Pa. will occur in two ways.

Federal tax credits will be used to pay premiums for health plans that cover elective abortions.

An abortion surcharge will be assessed to every individual in the exchange who is enrolled in a health plan that covers abortion.  Under the federal law, each person must pay this surcharge, whether they object to abortion or not - there is no opting out of the abortion surcharge.  That means that people will be forced to pay for other people’s abortions through the government-run exchange - even if that goes against their consciences.

Furthermore, under Obamacare rules, an insurance plan operating within the exchange may not advertise the fact that the plan includes abortion coverage.  The insurance provider may reveal this coverage at the time of enrollment in the summary of benefits.  Thus, without being aware, people will sign up for a plan requiring them to pay for other people’s abortions.

Senator Costa (who claims to be "pro-life") and his allies (one of them being Republican Senator Patricia Vance) are merely doing the bidding of Planned Parenthood on this issue.  They realize that H.B. 818 only maintains current public policy on public funding of abortion.  Their strategy is to make the passage of H.B. 818 as contentious and difficult as possible, in order to deter Pa. Senate Leaders from considering additional pro-life legislation during the 2013-2014 legislative term.

Vote Counting

The Pa. Senate has a 27-23 Republican majority.  Three of the Republican Senators are likely to vote for the weakening amendments to H.B. 818, i.e., Vance, McIlhinney and Baker.  In previous votes in 2011 on this and abortion facility regulation legislation, 5-8 Democrat Pa. Senators voted pro-life.  In fact, four of them (Kasunic, Solobay, Wozniak and Yudichak) co-sponsored S.B. 3 (the same as H.B. 818) in 2013.  Also, Senator Brewster voted for H.B. 818 in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee and Blake voted for S.B. 3 in June 2011.

The current challenge in advancing H.B. 818 to final passage is that none of these Democrat Senators with pro-life records (Kasunic and Wozniak also serve as the Democrat co-chairmen of the Pa. Senate pro-life Caucus) will commit to vote against Senator Costa's weakening amendments.  We need at least one, and preferably two, of these Democrat Senators with pro-life records, to make this commitment before Senators White, Corman (the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee), Pileggi and Scarnati advance H.B. 818 to final passage.

Please Help!

Senators Kasunic and Solobay are from Southwest Pa.  Senator Wozniak is from the Johnstown area.  Senators Yudichak and Blake are from Northeast Pa.  If you are willing to organize contact with any of these Senators, please call or e-mail me.

Also, Democrat Pa. Senator Mike Stack, from Northeast Philadelphia, voted for S.B. 3 in June 2011.  But, he voted against H.B. 818 in the Banking and Insurance Committee on May 7, 2013.  Senator Stack has a "mixed record," on the "abortion issue" and has apparently flipped to the pro-abortion side since he is interested in running for the Democrat nomination in the 13th Congressional District, which is being vacated by Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz's decision to run for Pa. Governor in 2014.

On the Republican side, despite what I have read in some correspondence on this issue from pro-life organizations, I believe that Senators Pileggi and Erickson (from Chester and Delaware Counties) are reliable votes against Senator Costa's weakening amendments based on their prior votes, and personal contact and correspondence.  I also believe that a reasonable possibility exists to win the votes of Senator Baker (from Northeast Pa.) and Senator McIlhinney (from Bucks County) against Senator Costa's weakening amendments.  Although Senator McIlhinney voted against S.B. 3 in 2011, he faces a likely challenge in the May 2014 Republican Primary from a pro-life and politically viable candidate.

Again, please call or e-mail me if you are willing to organize contact with any of these Pa. Senators.

 Thank you for reading this e-mail.  Please assist our efforts to pass H.B. 818 in the Pa. Senate.