WASHINGTON — National Right to Life today commended U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), along with a broad coalition of pro-life senators and representatives, for issuing a bicameral letter calling on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to stop administering taxpayer-funded health care plans that include elective abortion coverage for members of Congress and their staff. 

“Federal law has long prohibited taxpayer dollars from being used to subsidize elective abortions,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “It is unacceptable for OPM to ignore these clear legal protections and force Americans to underwrite abortion coverage for Congress and its staff. We applaud Senator Lee, Representative Smith, and all the signers for demanding accountability and adherence to the law.”

Since 1984, the Smith Amendment has explicitly barred the use of appropriated funds to pay for abortions or “the administrative expenses in connection with any health plan” that covers elective abortion — except in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is endangered. Despite this longstanding and unambiguous restriction, OPM has continued to administer government contributions toward nearly all available health plans offered to congressional employees, the vast majority of which include elective abortion coverage. This is something explicitly forbidden for every other federal employee under the Smith Amendment.

OPM has attempted to justify these subsidies by attributing abortion-related costs to individual enrollees rather than to taxpayers—an approach the letter’s authors rightly describe as an “accounting gimmick.” 

“Taxpayers should not be compelled to finance abortion through hidden subsidies or bureaucratic loopholes,” Tobias added. “Members of Congress should play by the same rules as every other federal employee when it comes to abortions paid for with tax dollars.”

National Right to Life strongly supports this oversight effort and urges OPM to immediately end the unlawful subsidization of abortion coverage.

The letter was signed by Senators Jim Banks (R-IN), Steve Daines (R-MT), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ted Cruz (R-TX), James Lankford (R-OK), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE), along with Representatives Sheri Biggs (R-SC), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Ben Cline (R-VA), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Russ Fulcher (R-ID), Michael Guest (R-MS), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Mark Messmer (R-IN), Mary Miller (R-IL), Barry Moore (R-AL), Keith Self (R-TX), Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), and Daniel Webster (R-FL).

The full letter is available here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.