A rising Democratic star, often touted as “the next Obama” and a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has tapped into a long-forgotten provision of Obamacare to fund abortion, including underwriting abortions for illegal immigrants. With Republicans in Washington threatening to squeeze federal funding for abortionists, multiple states may choose to exploit the same funding mechanism — an abortion-expanding loophole which pro-life organizations, including Family Research Council, have long flagged as problematic.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) signed a bill channeling the money collected under Obamacare’s abortion surcharge to fund abortions in the state. During a marathon signing session of approximately 170 bills on May 13, Moore signed legislation (H.B.930/S.B.848) establishing the Public Health Abortion Grant Program, which will give the $1 separate fee insurers collect to cover abortion in health insurance policies directly to abortionists or abortion funds that “provide equitable access to abortion” to the uninsured — including illegal immigrants. The bill also funds those without “sufficient abortion coverage” and allows the ethically challenged industry to charge the state “reasonable administrative costs.”

Moore boasted that the bill, which would give the abortion industry $25 million in a lump sum and $3 million annually, would help assure “Maryland will always be a safe haven for abortion access,” the same day as he cut more than $100 million from services for the disabled.

“Governor Moore is still sore that President Trump won in November, and is looking for every opportunity to oppose the president’s agenda in the swamp’s backyard,” Quena González, senior director of Government Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “Now he’s seized on an opportunity to use taxpayer dollars to fund woke Democrat donors.”

“Last cycle, Planned Parenthood’s political action arm spent almost $70 million to elect Kamala Harris; as Congress moves a bill to — finally! — defund the hundreds of millions of dollars that taxpayers have been spending every year to prop up America’s biggest abortion providers, Governor Moore wants to reward them for their political loyalty to Democrats by creating this new funding stream,” González added.

Other Democrat-controlled states may follow Moore’s lead — especially as Planned Parenthood faces federal defunding through pending federal legislation or executive action. A dozen states collect the $1 abortion surcharge, according to KFF: California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Representatives from some of those states have already contacted Maryland officials about taking similar steps, according to state lawmakers.

Delegate Lesley Lopez (D-39) asserted, “If programs like ours are duplicated across the country, we could help millions of Americans access essential abortion care — without relying on taxpayer dollars.” However, the bill — which Lopez sponsored — requires the governor to include in his annual budget an appropriation of taxpayer funding “at least equal” to the Obamacare withholdings beginning in 2027. 

Insurers have until September 1 to give the state 90% of all funds collected between 2014 and 2023 under §1303(B)(2)(B) and (C) of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2026, insurers must surrender any money remaining from the abortion surcharge 15 months after the end of a plan year “to support abortion care clinical services.”

Opening the new revenue spigot left the abortion industry’s supporters overjoyed. “This is a significant moment for abortion access, not only in Maryland, but nationally,” said Cat Duffy, a senior policy analyst at the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), a group that supports Medicaid expansion — an issue at the heart of the current reconciliation bill. “For years, insurers have quietly complied with the ACA’s special rules, collecting millions of dollars intended for abortions but unable to use them.” Redirecting those funds to abortionists “finally unleashes that potential,” said Duffy. NHeLP belongs to Democracy 2025 — a Resistance movement founded by Marc Elias’ Democracy Forward — with such fellow coalition members as American Atheists, People for the American Way, and the National Education Association.

Democrats intended the abortion surcharge to quell concerns about taxpayer funding for abortions through Obamacare. But a 2014 Government Accountability Office report confirmed that numerous health insurance policies on the state exchanges covered abortion, in violation of applicable law.

FRC has long warned about the abortion surcharge. “Pro-abortion advocates claim this amendment prevents federal funding for abortion,” noted an FRC paper on Obamacare from 2016. “However, according to Section 1303, individuals who enroll in a federally subsidized health care plan that includes elective abortion coverage will be required to pay an abortion surcharge of no less than $1 per month. These dollars are to be used to pay for abortions for anyone in that plan.”

“In other words, along with tax subsidies for plans with abortion coverage, Obamacare forces everyone in a qualified health plan in a state exchange to pay a minimum of $12 per year for elective abortion coverage,” FRC observed. “Since the abortion surcharge and the rest of the plan premiums are billed as one payment, it obliterates any pretense that federal tax credits are not being used to pay the cost of elective abortion coverage.”

At present, no legislation specifically targets the abortion surcharge. In January, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) reintroduced legislation (H.R.7/S.186) to prevent federal Obamacare subsidies from going toward abortion; however, the abortion surcharge would continue.

The loophole calls additional attention to Moore, who became Maryland’s governor in 2023 and has crammed a long history of abortion extremism into his short public life. Moore stood inside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility — the Annapolis Health Center, which carries out abortions until 16 weeks — and proclaimed, “This is a safe place” in a June 2023 online video. “We are proud to be here to support the [abortion] providers,” he added.

Maryland taxpayers paid for 12,518 abortions between the 2022 and 2024 fiscal years, spending a combined total of $9.1 million in state and federal funding, according to the Maryland Department of Health.

Maryland offers taxpayer-funded abortion to non-U.S. citizens. “Are you having a baby? You may get free health care if you are not a U.S. citizen,” declares a state website titled “Healthy Babies — Pregnancy and Postpartum Coverage.”

“Effective November 18, 2024, abortion services are available to all pregnant individuals,” stated a memo from the Maryland Medical Assistance Program to all state abortionists. “Effective November 18, 2024, abortion services may be covered for minors within the scope and limitations outlined in the Maryland Minor Consent Laws,” which require abortionists to provide parental notification; they need not ask for parental consent.

Moore signed the abortion-funding bill as he introduced deep budget cuts for the disabled. Moore proposed slashing $457 million from the program that serves more than 18,000 citizens with mental or developmental delays, the Developmental Disabilities Administration: $200 million in state funding, as well as federal matching funds. Ultimately, the budget restored $300 million but still cut $164 million total from the poor and vulnerable.

Abortionists committed 39,300 abortions in Maryland in 2024, a modest increase from 2023, according to an accounting from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.