Rep. Earl ''Buddy'' Carter, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Friday that the idea of the federal government using taxpayer money through Medicaid to pay travel expenses for women and girls to get an abortion is ''ludicrous'' and a way the Biden administration is trying to ''skirt'' the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion.
''All this is the administration trying to get around the fact that now people are going to have to travel to other states to get an abortion. The states that will be legal in, and what we want to do is to make sure that they're not using taxpayers' money to get the travel, to go there, to pay for the travel to go to that state,'' Carter said on ''American Agenda.''
''This is a ludicrous idea that taxpayers should be paying money for something that is not healthcare. Abortion is not healthcare. Healthcare saves lives; abortion ends lives.''
Carter and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., are sponsoring the Defunding Abortion Transportation Act, which would prohibit the use of federal Medicaid funds to pay for ''nonemergency transportation that is used to access medical care or services for which federal payment is prohibited,'' such as abortion.
''The Biden administration is gearing up to fund interstate travel for people seeking abortions. That is wrong,'' Carter told the Daily Caller before introducing the legislation July 13.
''The Defunding Abortion Transportation Act will put guardrails in place to prevent the federal government from subsidizing the death of unborn children. Democrats' abortion agenda, which allows for taxpayer-funded, elective abortions up until the moment of birth, is extreme and must be reined in.''
Biden signed an executive order Wednesday that would, among other things, directs the secretary of health and human services to ''consider actions to advance access to reproductive healthcare services, including, to the extent permitted by federal law, through Medicaid for patients traveling across State lines for medical care.''
''As it remains the policy of my administration to support women's access to reproductive healthcare services, including their ability to travel to seek abortion care in States where it is legal, I am directing my administration to take further action to protect access to reproductive healthcare services and to address the crisis facing women's health and public health more broadly,'' Biden said in the order.
Carter said that while Medicare and Medicaid do have money in the federal budget to provide necessary medical transportation, it is not supposed to be used for abortions.
''Now there is money and they're in our budget for travel, for travel for medical expenses,'' he said. ''That's the intent of this bill is to prohibit it from being used for that.''
Carter is seeking another term in Georgia's 1st Congressional District. He faces Democrat Wade Herring in the Nov. 8 general election.
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