Marino is critical of Carney on fund issues

Republican congressional candidate Tom Marino criticized his Democratic opponent U.S. Rep. Chris Carney for supporting health care legislation that will allow funding for certain abortions.

“I am deeply troubled to hear that taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortions in Pennsylvania,” Marino, the former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said in a press release sent by his campaign late Friday. “This is only further evidence that the Executive Order that was signed by President Obama, and supported by liberals in Congress like Chris Carney, is a total sham.”

Marino’s statement came after the National Right to Life Committee, a pro-life association, announced on July 13 it discovered the federal government will give $160 million to Pennsylvania to set up a “high risk” insurance program to cover U.S. citizens who’ve not had insurance for at least six months and have a pre-existing medical condition that prevented them from receiving health care coverage.

All states will share a total of $5 billion to cover these people until the federal healthcare program takes effect in 2014.

NRLC’s legislative director stated that part of the money Pennsylvania is receiving will “cover any legal abortion.”

Two independent fact checking websites, Politifact.com and Factcheck.org, have each stated that not all abortions will be funded with taxpayer dollars.

A spokeswoman for Pennsylvania’s Department of Insurance said the state would only use the federal money under three specific situations as stipulated in the Hyde Amendment that accompanied The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the overhaul of health care that passed earlier this year.

Those situations are in case of the child is conceived during a rape, incest or the women is in danger, Rosanne Placey said.

“We never would and we never could use federal money to fund elective abortions. We will be following HHS guidelines. There are very, very limited circumstances in which abortions could occur,” Placey said.

The federal government is supplying a total of $5 billion to all states to set up or extend healthcare programs

Carney said Marino released his comments out of desperation as Marino shows his true character.

"It’s not what the people of the 10th District deserve,” Carney said. “As every independent fact checker has confirmed, there is a strict prohibition on public funding for abortion. Tom Marino knows this and yet lies anyway. He should be ashamed of this kind of deceptive and misleading attack.”

The Dimock Township Democrat added that as a father of five he was proud to work with other congressional members to “prohibit public funding for abortion.”

Marino’s campaign spokesman Jason M. Fitzgerald responded that, “The Obama administration promised that no federal funds would be used for abortions of any kind and it is now clear that that is not true.”

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Congressional candidate is upset that taxpayer dollars could be used to pay for abortions.

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