RNC's Insurance Plan: Covering Abortions Since 1991.

On Thursday, Politico reported that the RNC has been offering its employees a health care policy that covers elective abortions since 1991. Cigna employees were cited as saying that the RNC had the choice to opt out of the abortion coverage, but failed to do so. Michael Steele, the RNC chairman, apparently didn’t know about the abortion coverage until the news report on Thursday. He made a statement on Friday saying, “Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose. I don’t know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled.” RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said that Steele immediately told staff to tell Cigna that the RNC wanted to opt out of the abortion coverage.

This discovery is surprising because “the GOP platform traditionally includes strong anti-abortion language.” All but one of the Republicans in the House voted for the Stupak amendment, an amendment restricting abortion coverage. This amendment has placed the Democrats in a difficult position. They want the health care bill to go through, but many of them are not happy with the restrictions put in place by the Stupak amendment. If the amendment remains on the health care bill, the pro-choice Democrats will have to decide if it is more important to support health care reform or women’s rights.