Romney Campaign Press Release - Politifact: Gingrich Abortion Video "Mostly False"

"Newt Gingrich Ad Says Mitt Romney Enacted Taxpayer-Funded Abortions: Mostly False"PolitifactMolly MoorheadJanuary 19, 2012http://www.politifact.com  

"Romney signed government-mandated health care with taxpayer-funded abortions."

Newt Gingrich on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 in a video ad

Mostly False

...

What's in the law?

First, what's not in the law: the word "abortion."

...

But the law doesn't address what is covered and what isn't. Search the text of it, and "abortion" is nowhere to be found.

"It doesn't say in the law what is covered or not. It talks about health care and funding health care," said Anne Fox, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which opposes abortion.

...

A 1981 Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Massachusetts said that the cost of abortions had to be included in publicly subsidized plans.

Most private insurance plans in the U.S. include abortion coverage, and the state-subsidized plans in Massachusetts do, too. So when the Health Connector began, abortion coverage was automatically included.

...

So Gingrich's ad is right that some abortions in Massachusetts are "taxpayer-funded." But that requirement long predated the law Romney signed.

"That was already a given," Fox said. "Anything that's paid for with tax money, like Medicaid, covered abortions."

...

Our ruling

Gingrich's ad says "Romney signed government-mandated health care with taxpayer-funded abortions."

What's right about that? Romney did sign government-mandated health care, and Massachusetts does provide taxpayer-funded abortions. But the ad inaccurately links the two together. The law Romney signed did not mention abortion coverage. It was included by the state exchange, which created plans that mirror private insurance nationwide. And a court decision two decades earlier mandated that the cost of the abortions be included. You'd never know any of that based on the misleading wording in the ad. We rate it Mostly False.