Democrats Picked an Insurance Fight They Weren’t Willing to Win. Now Abortion Is On the Line—Again (Opinion)

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Democrats blinked. Again.

After six weeks of a Republican-manufactured government shutdown—the longest in U.S. history—Democrats folded. They agreed to reopen the government without securing the one thing they swore they wouldn’t budge on: extending the federal insurance subsidies that millions of people rely on to keep their Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance even marginally affordable. 

Even though Republicans were taking the blame for the shutdown, Democrats caved first. With Democrats backed into a corner of their own making, once Senate Republicans saw the collapse coming, they did what Republicans always do: They started talking about abortion. 

Democrats made their bed

Republicans offered to extend the federal subsidies—but only if ACA plans have more stringent restrictions on abortion coverage.

‘But wait,’ you may be thinking. ‘The Hyde Amendment already bans federal funding for abortion (even though banning public funding is discriminatory).’ 

You’re right, it does. But Republicans are now trying to extend Hyde restrictions to private insurance beneficiaries. In other words, they now want to ban private funds from being used for abortions, too—not just public funds. 

So now, Democrats face a dilemma of their own creation: When the insurance issue comes back up for a vote in December, do they side against the subsidies they demanded to end the shutdown or accept a nationwide rollback of abortion coverage?

The latter would pose an obvious problem for states that require insurers to offer abortion coverage. Colorado, for example, constitutionally requires it. Other states, including California and New York, mandate it by state law. 

If Republicans are successful in barring ACA plans from covering abortion, these states would have limited options. They could comply with state law and risk losing ACA subsidies; ignore state law and eliminate abortion coverage; or try to subsidize abortion coverage with insurance riders, if insurance companies are even willing to offer such provisions. (Evidence suggests they are not.)

The offer is a “nonstarter,” according to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), one of the seven Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans to reopen the government. She argued the ACA already has guardrails against funding abortion.

But do you know what else was ostensibly a nonstarter? Reopening the government without securing an extension of the ACA subsidies. 

And I’m not convinced Democrats won’t find a way to make this situation worse in the name of saving face in 2026—especially when influential “liberal” voices like Ezra Klein want the party to run “pro-life Democrats” in states like Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio, where voters literally just passed pro-choice ballot initiatives.

Republicans have the power

Democrats keep fumbling the bag. And the best-case scenario in the subsidies extension fight is a Republican win, because Democrats wasted six weeks on a shutdown before voting against the very thing they claimed was non-negotiable in order to protect abortion coverage. 

It’s yet another unforced error by Democrats who keep acting as if Republicans will negotiate in good faith, even though they never do.

Republicans see shutdowns as opportunities.

Democrats see shutdowns as catastrophes.

Republicans are willing to break the government to get ideological wins.

Democrats are terrified of being blamed for disruption.

And that difference in posture and resolve is why we’re again watching Democrats surrender their leverage—the very leverage Republicans will now use to try to force Democrats to cave on reproductive rights.

Republicans love legislating abortion through appropriations riders. That’s why the Hyde Amendment has been a thorn in abortion advocates’ side since Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) first added it to an appropriations bill in 1976. Republicans realize the easiest way to ban something is to attach a condition to some of the federal dollars people can’t live without. 

For congressional Republicans, every continuing resolution is a chance to add a new restriction on yet another right. Every funding deadline is a point of pressure to exploit. Every potential shutdown is a bargaining chip in their relentless pursuit of Christian theocracy. 

And it’s not like Democrats don’t know this: More than 40 Senate Democrats sent a letter last year urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop packing must-pass bills with discriminatory anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ riders.

It turns out that Republicans don’t need 60 votes to pass a federal abortion restriction. They just need Democrats to keep caving—or to start shutdowns they don’t have the stones to see through. 

So here we are: Six weeks after their pointless shutdown, Republicans are dictating the terms of negotiation while Democrats scramble to avoid yet another shutdown and protect insurance coverage for millions. 

But at this point, how can Democrats expect Republicans—or anyone else—to take them seriously?

Time to draw the line—and hold it

Democrats keep governing as if Republicans still care about governance. 

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), for example, said “To think that they would use this as the demand, which they know is not ever going to get Democratic support—what it tells me is that they’re not serious about extending these tax credits,” according to the Washington Post.

Of course they’re not serious about helping Americans pay for health care. Republicans have spent more than a decade trying to weaken or repeal the ACA. 

They’re serious about using every procedural choke point to cement policy wins that will outlast them. They’re serious about turning every funding fight into another opportunity to strip away rights. They’re serious about embedding their agenda into the fine print of federal budgets because they know Democrats will blink first.

That’s the part I can’t get past. Republicans aren’t being coy about their plans. They’re doing this out loud! And Democrats—whether out of fear, caution, or delusion that Republicans will negotiate in good faith—keep letting them while issuing bland statements on social media about how they’re going to “keep fighting.” 

Keep fighting whom? How?

Democrats already used the one weapon they had to defend both affordable health care and abortion rights. That was the shutdown, and they caved. The ACA subsidies expire at the end of the year. At this point, there’s nothing Democrats can do to stop it. 

The best we can hope for now is that they won’t allow Republicans to dismantle abortion coverage the way they’ve dismantled so many other reproductive rights protections. 

It’s a low bar. And I don’t know if they’ll pass it.

The post Democrats Picked an Insurance Fight They Weren’t Willing to Win. Now Abortion Is On the Line—Again (Opinion) appeared first on Rewire News Group.