VIDEO: You’ll Be “Forced to Pay for Abortions” says Anti-Choice Healthcare Attack Ad

The Family Research Council has released an ad attacking health care reform, specifically the mythical assumption that proposed health care reform would force Americans into an insurance policy that covers abortion care.

The Family Research Council is jumping onto the anti-healthcare reform bandwagon with a "Harry and Louise" style television ad that focuses on the mythical assumption that proposed health care reform would force Americans into an insurance policy that covers abortion care. In any case, as Planned Parenthood points out, the majority of existing private health plans cover abortion care as part of a broader health care package. Moreover, according to a recent poll conducted by the Mellman Group, nearly 60 percent of likely voters would not support health care reform efforts if they failed to include reproductive health care, including abortion. It should also be noted that Planned Parenthood does much much more than provide abortions, it is a nationwide network of clinics that provides primary healthcare for millions of Americans.

UPDATE 1:59 PM EDT CNN Political Ticker says about the ad:

The current bill does not contain any provision for taxpayer-funded abortions. Instead, the current House version of the package would create a panel that would weigh what procedures might be covered — an approach White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said is the best way to take on the issue. Gibbs told reporters earlier this month that when it came to abortion — or other, less controversial coverage questions — it was “better left to experts in the medical field to determine how best and what procedures to cover.”

And Media Matters calls the ad “a gross distortion.”

None of the current health insurance reform bills directly address the issue of abortion. Currently, private insurance companies make their own decisions on whether or not abortion is a covered procedure. Current reform efforts will continue in that vein and allow consumers to choose a plan, through the Exchange, that is provided by a company that is in line with their own moral decision about abortion.

This ad from Planned Parenthood helps show the breadth of care its network of clinics provides in this country: