Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate, who agreed with Democrat demands to discuss extending heightened Obamacare subsidies in order to end the record-setting Schumer Shutdown of the federal government, have delivered more bad news to the minority party.

They are linking the Democrats’ demands that emergency additional subsidies be continued to a new effort to enforce already existing federal abortion limits.

The shutdown triggered, and maintained, by many votes by Senate Democrats against opening the government, was partly over heightened subsidies for Americans getting health insurance through the hugely troubled Obamacare system.

The Democrats, then in the majority, had approved “emergency” additional subsidies a few years back. Then they continued those additional subsidies several times. But they scheduled them to end at the conclusion of 2025, and they are not in the majority now to push them into another extension.

The problem is that the failings within the Obamacare system are expected to trigger huge increase in premiums for Americans getting those policies starting January 1.

The shutdown is concluding now, with legislation being approved in the Senate, and House, to reopen government operations.

The GOP promise was that those Obamacare extensions would be discussed.

And discussed they will be, along with those abortion funding limits.

A report at Breitbart explains Sen. Majority Leader John Thune said, “A one-year extension along the lines of what [Democrats] are suggesting, and without Hyde protections — doesn’t even get close.”

Republicans simply want to block states from allowing people to access abortions through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces using state or other funding, the report said.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has indicated he’s open to extending the subsidies, but said Republicans won’t support it without the abortion restrictions, the report said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and a radical abortion advocate, claimed the GOP now wants a “backdoor national abortion ban.”

He called for Democrats to “dismiss” the plan that would enforce existing abortion limits, and extend Obamacare subsidies.

The enhanced Obamacare subsidies first were begun during the COVID pandemic created by the China virus.

The report said without an extension of the subsidies, “individuals who purchase health insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplaces will see steep premium rises — some by thousands of dollars a month — beginning next year.”

Thune said the GOP requests aren’t complicated, a “more stringent enforcement of longstanding restrictions on federal funding being used for abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment.”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.