Kansas Abortion Insurance Restrictions Are Challenged In Court

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against a new Kansas law that bans the coverage of abortion as part of standard private health insurance plans. Of the 13 abortion coverage bans that have been passed in state legislatures since 2010, the Kansas law is the first to be challenged in court.

Eighty-seven percent of employer-based insurance policies nationwide covered abortion as of January 2011, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization. But Kansas lawmakers passed legislation in May that forces private insurance companies to remove abortion from the list of standard procedures they cover, except when the mother's life is at risk. A woman would have to buy a separate insurance plan to cover abortions in cases of rape or serious health risks, and some insurance companies have said they would not offer such a rider.

"It would be no different than the state making women pay a tax on abortion," Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told HuffPost. "It's part of the onslaught of laws we're seeing nationally, and particularly in Kansas, that want to punish and shame women for choosing abortion."

Although the insurance plans covering abortion are not paid for by the state or with taxpayer money, proponents of the ban say that it frees employers from having to "underwrite" abortion coverage for their employees.

"It is anything but unreasonable to insist that morally opposed individuals and businesses be freed from underwriting abortions, especially now that official Kansas statistics show fully 40 percent of abortions are performed on women who’ve had one, two, three or more before," said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life.

Amiri said the ACLU is challenging the law in federal court on two bases: It's unconstitutional, because it was passed with the purpose of making it more difficult for women to obtain and pay for abortion care, and it discriminates based on sex.

"Kansas has prohibited women from buying policies that include abortion coverage, but there is no restriction from the state about any sort of service that men need," she told HuffPost. "The men in Kansas have access to fully comprehensive health coverage, and the women don't."

If the insurance bans being passed in the states are intended to discourage abortions, recent studies suggest they will not have their intended effect. In 2008, only 12 percent of abortions were paid for with private insurance, according to the Guttmacher Institute. About two-thirds of women who had private insurance still paid out of pocket for their abortion procedures, which might have been because they hadn't met their deductibles or because they didn't want their employer or primary policy holder to find out about the abortion.

The ACLU says it's targeting the Kansas law because it was the first to go into effect, but it will be looking more closely at the abortion coverage bans in other states as their effective dates approach.

"We're talking about dictating to private insurance companies what they can and cannot sell to their customers for political reasons, and that seems wrong," Amiri said.

Comments

[XME]

03:34 AM on 08/18/2011

This be overturned in a heartbeat. Abortions are legal, so no law can dictate to a private company whether or not they can pay for them. And again...where's the outrage that insurance cover viaga but not tampons?!

[Seymourhiney]

10:03 PM on 08/17/2011

Republican stands for self righteous B------.

[Seymourhiney]

10:02 PM on 08/17/2011

The Republican mantra is, let's erase the entire 20th century. Eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, social security , women's rights, public education, clean water and air, military pensions, unions, government workers, anything that works and makes us a great nation.

Come on folks, this will not happen, vote a straight Democrat ticket.

Great country America, let's keep it great.

[DanBeach]

02:22 PM on 08/17/2011

"If only Christian fundamentalists had more control over my life, then I'd have freedom!"

[K August]

01:53 AM on 08/18/2011

Yep, must be all that liberty and freedom the TPers were talking about.

[tcdsconward]

02:20 PM on 08/17/2011

ITS TIME FOR WOMAN TO STEP UP AND FIGHT THESE GOP HATERS

[Just My Thoughts 2011]

02:17 PM on 08/17/2011

In the case of the few exceptions where they are medically necessary, the only ones who should have to pay for the abortion should be the people involved...and sadly the human life will pay, as well.

[NikitaAhn]

01:36 PM on 08/17/2011

Blowing out a match does not mean you put out a forest fire. Stepping on an acorn does not mean you just cut down a might oak. Just like having an abortion and removing a tiny cluster of cells from your body does NOT mean you're "murdering a baby." People need to brush up on the difference between potential and actuality.

[onnozol]

02:26 AM on 08/18/2011

Well said. F&F.

[Okieborn]

01:20 PM on 08/17/2011

You want to know what the republicans battle cry is, take all rights away from the poor and middleclass leave them with nothing dismantle the social programs they need and then we will have the complete demise of their troubling existance !

[NikitaAhn]

01:13 PM on 08/17/2011

So the GOP throws a tantrum over the idea of universal health care because government shouldn't have any place in health care, and then they go and pass laws like this one that literally tell doctors and insurance providers what they're ALLOWED to provide for women under their care. They are standing between women and their doctors by dictating procedures like mandatory sonograms and "counseling" by anti-choice programs that in no way actually fit the definition of true counseling. They're forcing doctors to forgo safer, less invasive methods of providing abortions in the form of chemical abortions by claiming the drugs perform the role of surgery and cannot be used, thereby forcing women to have a more invasive, uncomfortable, risky procedure. I mean, they even tried to pass a law that would make it LEGAL to murder doctors providing abortions. Yeah, real "pro-life." Funny how their side of the debate is the only one shooting people and blowing up clinics and making death threats.

[Decorina]

07:50 PM on 08/17/2011

Many of them are pro-war as well.

F & F'd. Excellent post.

[camanokat]

01:14 PM on 08/18/2011

...and pro death penalty...

[gloriaswanson43]

12:06 PM on 08/17/2011

Good, fight back.

[pavementends42]

11:47 AM on 08/17/2011

Um, that is criminal, which, I guess, is why they are suing the state over it. No way they should limit private insurance coverage when it's tough enough to get insurance for anything to begin with! Disgusting moralizing... if you can say you 'believe' something, I can say I 'believe' something else and go about my day... unless, of course, you are in the local majority and force us to believe it with a law. There is no such thing as a Pro-lifer, just an Anti-Your-Rightser.

[The Right is Wrong]

11:41 AM on 08/17/2011

Just like here in Colorado there is a Christian license plate that says "Respect Life".

Now I ask, do those who have those plates support capital punishment? Or support Bu$hes wars?

I say, You must respect ALL life, not just the unborn.

[Okieborn]

01:24 PM on 08/17/2011

These so called christians seem to be in favor of removing food programs for the youth of our country, dismantle the social programs that are the very life line of the poor and middle classes existance, no healthcare for poor parents who need medical care along with their children.
If you want to save lives why not include all not just your picks for the battle !!!

[K August]

02:12 AM on 08/18/2011

Excellent .......case in point...... Gov of TX who routinely allows executions but claims to be pro-life.

[LIbislife]

01:35 PM on 08/17/2011

not disagreeing with you but one can say the opposite as well. How can you be against the death penalty because killing is wrong and then be ok with aborting a baby?

[leskataus]

02:52 PM on 08/17/2011

Many of us don't like the death penalty because it isn't fair. If you're rich and guilty of murder, you can literally buy yourself out of getting the death penalty but if you're poor, you can be railroaded and convicted of a crime you didn't commit. There have been too many cases of death row inmates who were convicted because of faulty evidence, mistaken witnesses, biased juries, and poor legal representation.

[camanokat]

07:39 PM on 08/17/2011

Because many of us do not believe that a fetus is a baby. It's a baby when it is no longer a parasite using the woman's blood and organs, in other words at birth.

[kylenevin1]

11:13 AM on 08/17/2011

Please dont call them Pro-Life, as they have documented they dont care about 'life' once it is here. Prime example below. They are anti-choice plain and simple. Now when they take care of all the unwanted children on earth, then they may be pro-life but will always be the ones who wish to impede on the rights of other individuals.

[NikitaAhn]

12:36 PM on 08/17/2011

Or when they actually care about the lives of the women who's reproductive freedom they're attacking and who's lives they're putting at risk.

[kylenevin1]

11:05 AM on 08/17/2011

Oops have to rephrase so not to hurt anyones feelings? I volunteer in a facility where we have 20 girls and 15 boys, all have had to prostitute themselves to survive. There are over 100,000 facilities like ours across the U.S. that are full to capacity, when are you going to open your hearts, wallets, and homes to these unwanted kids already here? Is it more important you impede on the rights of women, rather than to help those who are already here survive? I put my three daughters through school, one law school and two medical school and have paid for one of these kids to attend college each year for the last 8 but I cant make a dent alone. Where are all of you who care so much about life?

[NikitaAhn]

12:43 PM on 08/17/2011

AMEN. I've worked in social services with kids for about 8 years as well, in homeless shelters and group homes and outreach programs, and I've watched hundreds of kids age out of foster care without families or support, watched good programs close because the GOP slashes our budgets, and ignorant people condemn our kids as "bad kids" or "delinquents" who should be locked up. Anti-choice people don't give a damn about a kid once it's out of the womb - if it's a fetus it's worth attacking people over, but as soon as it's an infant it's just a leech on the system. Kudos to you for paying for college for those kids - I know very well what an incredible gift that is for them. I'm barely managing to put myself through school, but I do volunteer with Court Appointed Special Advocates for about 20 hours a month and mentor six kids (three of which I have mentored for over four years). And as you said, it barely scratches the surface of the need I see. Where's the outrage about that?

[camanokat]

07:40 PM on 08/17/2011

I wish I could fan you again!

[whosallen]

10:55 AM on 08/17/2011

What is it about these folks that makes want to eliminate government yet intrude on women's health through government? Can we say hypocrites.

[kylenevin1]

11:22 AM on 08/17/2011

When I point out what they are, I keep getting my post deleted. My and as I stated in the above post, they really are, as they just want the living to be miserable and want to do nothing else.

[brt929]

12:03 PM on 08/17/2011

It all points to misogyny.  It all points to forcing women to continue unwanted pregnancies and giving birth.

[Just My Thoughts 2011]

02:23 PM on 08/17/2011

In over 90% of unwanted pregnancies, who's fault is it? Who is forcing anyone to make irresponsible choices? I think most people know how reproduction works, and what can be done in most cases to avoid an unwanted pregnancy.