House Republicans took quite an interest in repealing health care. Replacing it, not so much. They passed an instruction to committees to come up with something new on the legislative front yesterday, but there’s no timetable or sense of urgency around it. While in their narrative, businesses had to suffer under uncertainty with Obama policies for two years, everyone waiting around for an indeterminate period to figure out what the health care system will look like doesn’t create that same uncertainty.

However, there’s one area on which House Republicans can agree, and it’s the centerpiece of their health care strategy, the signature bill, maybe the only bill on this issue they’ll pass this year. It’s a bill banning federal funding of abortion.

H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would codify the Hyde Amendment, the annual appropriations rider that restricts Medicaid funding for abortions, and extend its restrictions throughout the health care system. Under current law, only specific programs have abortion funding restrictions, and those must be reauthorized every year. H.R. 3 would impose a blanket restriction on all abortion funding, even when the cost of abortion coverage is paid for entirely with private funds.

The bill prohibits both direct and indirect funding streams that might potentially touch on the provision of abortion care and would make abortion as difficult to obtain as possible without actually criminalizing it. And it does this by arguing that money is fungible — that is, if an individual received a tax credit, she will have more private dollars to pay for abortion coverage.

Since every health insurer gets some manner of government money, as well as every employer for providing insurance, the practical effect of HR 3 is to end all insurance participation, public or private, in funding abortions, period. As a result, all abortions will have to be paid for out of pocket, the only legal medical procedure in America that would be barred from coverage.

The health care bill already basically bars public funding for abortions, by forcing a separate premium payment for abortion coverage to insurance purchased on the exchanges. This bill would not only eliminate that aspect, it would eliminate private insurance for reproductive health as well. In the end, this simply expands government, and increases government control over women’s bodies.

This bill will get support from pro-life Democrats; in fact, Dan Lipinski (D-IL) is a cosponsor. There are probably enough Democrats to filibuster this under current rules, but not by a whole lot. This is the true agenda of the (mostly) male incoming Republican class – to show their dominance over women.