In response to a new Michigan state measure mandating that insurance plans offer coverage for abortion only through an additional rider, pro-choice activists are labeling the separate coverage as “rape insurance.” They argue that requiring people to elect to purchase abortion coverage for themselves or their dependents puts at risk women who seek an abortion because they have been raped.
Pro-life supporters brought about the citizen-initiated vote on the measure through collecting signatures from close to 4 percent of state residents. The measure will apply to all public plans and most private ones, allowing those who oppose abortion to not have to subsidize coverage of the procedure through taxes or premiums.
“This doesn’t affect access to abortion,” one Republican state representative told the Detroit Free Press. “It will still be legal when this law takes effect. Who should be required to pay? Not Michigan taxpayers.”
But Democrats in Lansing forcefully disagree. “Forcing women to decide whether they want to buy ‘rape insurance’ and even compelling parents to make the unfathomable decision about whether to buy it for their daughters is truly despicable,” said state senate minority leader Gretchen Whitmer.
The measure, which does not have to be approved by Governor Rick Snyder because it was a citizen-initiated vote, will go into effect in 90 days, making Michigan the ninth state to allow people with moral objections to abortion the freedom from having to subsidize abortion coverage.
Via Weasel Zippers.