Skip to content

Friday, Feb. 13, 2026

Do 13 states require fully-insured health insurance plans to cover abortion, as Sen. Lankford claimed?

Matthew Yim, Oklahoma Watch
yes

Abortion coverage is required for Medicaid, private, and Affordable Care Act Marketplace enrollees in 13 states. Some plans, such as those that are self-insured or self-funded, do not share this requirement.

However, Lankford’s further claim that the ACA excludes Hyde Amendment limits is patently false; the ACA explicitly restricts the use of federal funds and tax credits for abortions to instances that endanger the life of the woman or that are a result of rape or incest.

Non-Hyde abortions are required to be paid using segregated funds that come from charging each enrollee $1 per month. Issuers estimate the actuarial value of abortion coverage to be even less than that.

The ACA also allows states to ban marketplace plans from covering abortion, which half of the states have done, while the remaining 12 and DC have no restriction or coverage requirements. 13 states, including Oklahoma, have banned abortion altogether.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

See all fact briefs

Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) corporation that produces in-depth and investigative journalism as a public service for the benefit of all Oklahomans. Through investigative, fact-driven journalism, we dig deep and examine significant issues facing our state. Our work engages all Oklahomans, amplifies the discussion of important issues and leads to change. We help develop the journalists and journalism of the future.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.