{"id":229090,"date":"2020-08-18T16:45:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=229090"},"modified":"2020-08-18T00:51:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T05:51:30","slug":"100-legislators-treasury-secretary-tax-breaks-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/100-legislators-treasury-secretary-tax-breaks-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 100 U.S. legislators sign letter urging Treasury Secretary to end tax breaks for abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

On August 12th, over 100 U.S. legislators<\/a> signed a letter<\/a> addressed to Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of the United States Treasury, urging him “to take swift action to issue new regulations to protect innocent human life by ending tax breaks for abortion under the guise of medical care.” The lawmakers noted, “Abortion is not health care. Any procedure for which a successful outcome depends on the death of a living human being, born or unborn, cannot be considered health care.”<\/p>\n

According to Liberty Counsel:<\/p>\n

After the 1973 Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, the IRS chose to reinterpret the 1942 statutory definition of \u201cmedical care\u201d in the Code to include abortions. This, in turn, creates tax breaks for abortions through the medical expenses deduction as well as through health flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, and other tax-preferred health accounts and tax breaks that incorporate \u00a7213(d)\u2019s definition of \u201cmedical care.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

By correcting this error, the Department of Treasury would protect taxpayers from funding the procedure and subsidizing the deaths of innocent unborn children.<\/em><\/p>\n

The signers argue that classifying abortion as medical care is incorrect because clearly, that was not the original intent. “[W]hen the deduction for medical care was first enacted in the Revenue Act of 1942, abortion was a crime in virtually every state. However, shortly after\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>, the IRS imposed on the then-three-decades-old statute a meaning of ‘medical care’ that would have been unthinkable to the 77th Congress that enacted it,” lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n