WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to limit tax breaks for insurance policies that cover abortion.
The bill, which passed 251-175, was the latest Republican effort to chip away at President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and follow through on the GOP’s campaign promise to keep taxpayers from underwriting abortion.
“Abortion is not health care,” said Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb.
The measure has little chance of advancing in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the Obama administration has threatened to veto it.
The bill also would prevent women from deducting the cost of an abortion from their taxable income, except when the procedure is performed in cases of rape, incest or when a physician certifies that a woman’s life would be in danger if she continues the pregnancy.
Current law, known as the Hyde Amendment, bars federal money for abortion, with the same exceptions. But the bill would make the Hyde Amendment federal law rather than a provision added to other bills that must be voted on every year.
Abortion opponents claim the health care overhaul contains a loophole for insurance policies. The overhaul, passed last year, creates state marketplaces for insurance known as “exchanges.” It allows participating plans to cover abortion, provided they collect a separate premium from policyholders and that the money is kept apart from federal subsidies.
The bill, written by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., disallows the tax credit for the expenses of a small-employer health insurance plan that includes abortion coverage. Democrats said that amounts to a tax increase.
“I thought my Republican friends hated taxes, but apparently, they hate reproductive freedom and women’s rights even more,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.
Supporters of the bill passed Wednesday say the health care overhaul doesn’t go far enough to ensure that no tax money is used to subsidize abortions. Congressional estimates say the bill would raise only a negligible amount of tax revenue.
Opponents say the bill would make it difficult, if not impossible, for women to obtain medical insurance that covers abortion — even if they pay for it themselves. They say the legislation could put the Internal Revenue Service in the position of determining whether women who get abortions were sexually assaulted so the agency could decide whether the procedure is tax deductible.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
