Quick Fact: O'Reilly claims health bill would "force all Americans... to fund, through their taxpayer dollars, abortions"

From the November 23 broadcast of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY:  But here's what I think tipped it, and I want to get your opinion. Here's what I think did it. I think it's the abortion option in the health care bill that is not going to go through but so many Democrats want it to go through, which would force all Americans, even pro-life Americans, to fund, through their taxpayer dollars, abortions. I think that's what lit the fuse for Dolan here in New York and the others who put out this manifesto.

Fact: Senate bill explicitly prohibits federal funding of abortions not covered under Hyde amendment

As Media Matters for America has documented, the Senate version of the health care bill requires the HHS secretary to ensure the public option uses "no Federal funds" in providing abortion coverage beyond Hyde. Section 1303(a)(1)(C) of the Senate bill, titled "Prohibition on federal funds for abortion services in community health insurance option" explains that the Health and Human Services secretary must ensure that "no Federal funds are used for such coverage" as outlined in Section 1303(a)(1)(B)(i). That section is defined as "Abortion for which public funding is prohibited." The bill also states that if a "qualified health plan" offered under the Exchange provides coverage of abortion services for which public funding is banned, "the issuer of the plan shall not use any amount attributable" to the subsidies created under the bill "for purposes of paying for such services" and must segregate funds for that purpose.

Fact: House bill's Stupak amendment goes beyond Hyde amendment status quo

As Media Matters noted, in a November 9 editorial, The New York Times wrote that the amendment to the House health care bill offered by Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Joe Pitts (R-PA) would affect "women eligible to buy coverage on new health insurance exchanges" and "would prevent millions of Americans from buying insurance that covers abortions -- even if they use their own money." The Times noted that the amendment's supporters "reached far beyond Hyde and made it largely impossible to use a policyholder's own dollars to pay for abortion coverage" because the amendment "would ban the use of federal subsidies to pay for 'any part' of a policy that includes abortion coverage." As the Times noted, the Hyde Amendment "bans the use of federal dollars to pay for almost all abortions in a number of government programs." Prior to the addition of the Stupak Amendment, the bill already required that the public option be fully paid for by premiums and banned the use of affordability credits from the government for most abortions; thus, the bill banned the use of government money to directly pay for abortions.

Fact: Status quo already allows people participating in federally funded plans to obtain abortions as long as funds are segregated

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Hyde Amendment was originally passed to prohibit federal funding for abortions through the Medicaid program and has since been expanded to other areas. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the prohibition on federal funding for most abortions under Medicaid, according to a September 1 study by the Guttmacher Institute, 17 states provide coverage under Medicaid for "all or most medically necessary abortions," not just abortions in cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. Therefore, in 17 states, Medicaid, a federally subsidized health care program, covers abortions in circumstances in which federal money is prohibited from being spent on abortion.