IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits?

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

If Republicans get their way that’s a distinct possibility. Under a GOP-backed bill the Internal Revenue Service would be required to police how Americans pay for abortions. Under the Republicans’ “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”, known as H.R. 3, IRS agents would also have to determine if the terminated pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

H.R. 3 extends the Hyde Amendment which bans federal funding of abortion. The law would forbid using tax credits or tax deductions to pay for abortions. During an audit, the burden of proof lies with the taxpayer, so keep your receipts. Did the Republicans forget about tax refunds?

During an audit, a woman would have to prove that funds from a pre-tax Health Savings Account were not used to pay for an abortion, or the abortion was the result of rape, or incest, or her life was in danger. Ideally that proof would be in the form of a “contemporaneous written documentation.”

Republicans have decided that the money you save due to tax breaks and tax credits isn’t your money after all, it’s the government’s money, and the government’s decision on how it shall be spent.

Aptly put by New York Magazine:

For a political party that sees the IRS like a bunch of jackbooted thugs, the GOP sure is eager to give them a front-row seat to your uterus.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) notices the GOP’s cognitive dissonance:

Even though Republicans say they want government out of our lives, this is the most intrusive governmental act that we’ve probably seen to date in the personal lives of women.

H/T: Nick Baumann, Kevin Drum, The Raw Story.