Operation Rescue released a summary of its findings on Wednesday, the day before the U.S. House of Representatives is due to vote on House Resolution 358, or the “Protect Life Act,” which would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to prohibit federal funds from going toward any health care plan that covers abortion services.

The goal of the Protect Life Act, which is expected to pass in the House but not receive a vote in the Senate, is to steer funds away from insurance plans that cover abortion services, making it more difficult for women to afford abortions.

In conjunction with Albuquerque, N.M.-based anti-abortion-rights group Project Defending Life, Operation Rescue’s team claims to have called abortion clinics in 12 states and learned that Medicaid would pay for abortions in each case, despite the fact that the hypothetical pregnancies described by the callers were not the result of rape or incest or deemed to be potentially fatal.

The group released the audio recordings from several of these conversations including one with the Southern Women’s Options clinic in Albuquerque, where the receptionist told (PDF) the caller certain Medicaid coverage would likely cover her abortion at 26 weeks of gestation, amounting to approximately $8,000 to $9,000. In the recording, the caller explains there is nothing physically wrong with her pregnancy but that she and her husband just changed their mind because he lost his job.

“It’s shocking that our tax dollars would pay $9,000 for a third-trimester abortion simply because of a lost job,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman in a statement. “The vast majority of the American people strongly object to their tax money being used in this way.”

As the Kaiser Family Foundation explains, the federal Hyde Amendment, passed in 1977, prohibits states from using federal Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the mother’s life is at risk; however, states can use their own funds to cover other “medically necessary” abortions for Medicaid recipients, usually defined by states as those “to protect the physical or mental health of the woman.”

The White House released a veto threat (PDF) against the bill Wednesday:

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 358 because … the legislation intrudes on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care and unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices that women and their families have today. Longstanding Federal policy prohibits Federal funds from being used for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered.  The Affordable Care Act preserved this prohibition and included policies to ensure that Federal funding is segregated from any private dollars used to fund abortions for which Federal funding is prohibited.  The President’s Executive Order 13535 reinforces that Federal funding cannot be used for abortions (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) and ensures proper enforcement of this policy.

While investigators haven’t released information about the suspect or motive, Tiller had been a target of anti-abortion activists for more than a decade. He was shot in both arms by Rachelle Shannon in 1993. His clinic was bombed in 1986, and was vandalized earlier this month causing several thousand dollars in damage.

If his murder was the result of anti-abortion ideology, Tiller’s would be the eighth death in the last 20 years. In addition, there have been 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 175 incidents of arson, 96 attempted bombings or arson, 390 invasions, 1,400 cases of vandalism, 1,993 cases of trespassing, 100 butyric acid attacks, 659 anthrax threats, 179 cases of assault and battery, 406 death threats, four kidnappings, 151 burglaries, and 525 cases of stalking directed at abortion clinics, doctors and patients according to the National Abortion Federation.

Those numbers include Matthew Derosia’s attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul earlier this year.

Anti-abortion activists quickly condemned the murder.

“We cannot kill people in the name of pro-life.” said Bryan Kemper, president of Stand True. “Answering the violence of abortion with more violence will not serve the babies or help the pro-life movement in any way.”

Operation Rescue, a group that had launched a national protest against Tiller in 1991, wrote in a release: “Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”

But Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, was less apologetic. “George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God,” said Terry. “I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller’s killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder.”

“He died the way he lived. His was a bloody death,” said the Rev Rusty Thomas of Operation Save America. “Someone ‘chose’ to end George Tiller’s life this morning, in his church.”

Rev. CJ Conner, author of “Jesus and the Culture Wars: Reclaiming the Lord’s Prayer,” said it was Tiller’s church that was to blame.

Mr. Tiller lived quite the murderous life himself, pulling viable babies out by their legs and sucking their brains out with a vacuum. Other Churches called him to repentance and excommunicated him, but Reformation Lutheran, ELCA, enthusiastically embraced him, pocketbook and all.

Church discipline, and the call to repentance, is a matter of life and death in the Church. As Reformation Lutheran mops up Tiller’s blood from their foyer floor, let them not forget that his blood is also on their hands.

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, was saddened but wouldn’t label it an anti-abortion killing.

I am saddened to hear of the killing of George Tiller this morning. At this point, we do not know the motives of this act, or who is behind it, whether an angry post-abortive man or woman, or a misguided activist, or an enemy within the abortion industry, or a political enemy frustrated with the way Tiller has escaped prosecution. We should not jump to conclusions or rush to judgment.

But whatever the motives, we at Priests for Life continue to insist on a culture in which violence is never seen as the solution to any problem. Every life has to be protected, without regard to their age or views or actions.

Related:
Planned Parenthood of Minnesota to get U.S. Marshal protection

‘A fascist movement’: Last late-term-abortion doctor calls Tiller assassin ‘terrorist’