Reproductive Parity Act: Washington Considers Groundbreaking Abortion Rights Law

As state legislatures across the country debate and pass measures designed to roll back women's abortion rights, lawmakers in Washington state have introduced a rare, groundbreaking reproductive rights bill that would require every insurance policy in the state that covers maternity care to also cover abortions.

Washington already has 14 insurance coverage mandates on the books, including contraception, mammograms, and prostate cancer screenings. It also uses its own Medicaid funding to subsidize abortion care for low-income women. Supporters of the new bill, called the Reproductive Parity Act, said it won't change much in the state, since it is already very friendly to women's reproductive rights, but it will protect women from any new barriers to abortion that would be imposed by the Affordable Care Act.

"This bill is about ensuring that all Washington women have health insurance coverage that includes the full range of reproductive health care options, including abortion," said Rep. Eileen Cody (D), who sponsored the bill. "As we implement the federal health care reform law, we need to ensure that we have no erosion of our existing laws in Washington that protect women's reproductive rights."

After his health insurance bill passed, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to ensure that no federal funds could be used for abortion services under the new state health insurance exchanges. The Reproductive Parity Act would be the first law in the nation to ensure that the language of the ACA's abortion provisions would not affect any woman's abortion coverage in Washington.

Abortion is already becoming a wedge issue in Washington's highly competitive gubernatorial race. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who is running for governor and has a strong pro-choice record in Congress, immediately pledged his support for the bill. Republican candidate Rob McKenna, who currently serves as the state's Attorney General, has avoided taking a stance on the issue.

"Regarding the proposed parity act, I look forward to reading the bill when it becomes available," he said Wednesday during a Facebook Q&A.

A Washington blogger points out that the text of the bill was already available for McKenna to read.

McKenna's dodge could help him win over anti-abortion advocates in the state, who strongly oppose the proposed mandate.

"To mandate that we violate our conscience is tyranny," Dan Kennedy, CEO of Human Life of Washington, told the Seattle Times last week. "There's no subtle or soft way to put the truth."

Comments

[kelly socal]

03:01 AM on 01/17/2012

Story of Amillia Taylor-Google {The tiniest survivor: How the 'miracle' baby born two weeks before the legal abortion limit clung to life against all odds}. Darn thing wouldn't let me paste a link!
"'As the doctor began the Caesarean, he told Eddie and me that they would wait to see if the baby was breathing, or showing signs that she wanted to survive before they decided to act. She was so tiny, he couldn't even find her in my womb - she was trapped in the birth canal.'

Amillia's skin was so fragile that her ear was almost completely torn off as she was lifted clear. One eye was still fused shut, and she was just nine-and-a-half inches long, weighing less than 10oz, the equivalent of two bars of soap. But incredibly, her mouth opened and she attempted to cry."

[kelly socal]

03:29 PM on 01/19/2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211950/Premature-baby-left-die-doctors-mother-gives-birth-just-days-22-week-care-limit.html

[anne1stoftwo]

02:40 PM on 01/16/2012

If you don't want an abortion then don't have one. I support a womans right to choose. I support my daughter and granddaughters right to choose. I am sick of religion nuts thinking its okay to become involved in something that is NONE of their BUSINESS. I watched my sister have a baby from a man who raped her when she was 16. He wasn't punished but she sure was. Forced to birth a child when she was a child. And trust me, it didn't do the child any favors. Regardless of how a woman is pregnant, its her business and no one elses. Get over thinking you can make government smaller right wing republicans but interfere with my reproductive rights...

[craichead2011]

01:31 AM on 01/19/2012

I agree and support choice as well. However this article is not about the right to choose, but about how the procedure is financed.

[anne1stoftwo]

08:53 AM on 01/19/2012

You know, medicaid and medicare will pay for a man's viagra but not a womans abortion. Put that in perspective, he can make the baby but she can't stop it most of the time. Its time for insurance to recognize that we need insurance to pay the same for women as they do men.

[professor]

11:46 PM on 01/15/2012

Sorry, but all those state laws against abortion will not be upheld. This is an election year and they are only floated to whip up the swingvoter evangelicals.

[jessicadevyn]

12:02 AM on 01/16/2012

It's just a way to drum up the base of single issue abortion voters.

[professor]

05:42 PM on 01/16/2012

Thank goodness a woman understands the concept of wedge issues and doesn't play right into rightwing hands by getting all up in arms.

Here's a solution. Put mrjna legalization referendums in all the swingstate elections. The stner turnout will swamp the evangelical.

[giftsthatpurr]

12:45 PM on 01/16/2012

I sure hope not. As it is they have made it so difficult for PP that some have had to give up.

[roadwarrior09]

10:57 PM on 01/15/2012

A bit of history: Dr. Kenneth Edelin, an obstetrician in a celebrated abortion case in Boston, was convicted of manslaughter, but the court’s decision was later reversed, and Edelin was acquitted of all charges. What Edelin had done was to perform a Caesarean section on a woman and then smother the baby in the uterus,removing the body only after the baby was dead. While his conviction was being appealed, Edelin was named “Physician of the Year” by the Boston University Medical School graduating class.

[jessicadevyn]

11:42 PM on 01/15/2012

Dr. Edelin is a hero. It was a witch hunt that was after him and that's why the charges were thrown out.

[GDWhiteman]

11:11 AM on 01/16/2012

Considering that a fetus in the womb is not even breathing, the notion that it can be "smothered" is ridiculous.

[Lady1genius]

11:16 AM on 01/16/2012

I have to admit, that was the first thought that crossed my mind. How can you "smother" something that doesn't even breathe. I suppose the only way would have been to clamp the umbilical cord, but that isn't "smothering."

[sheahananne2]

10:46 PM on 01/15/2012

"To mandate that we violate our conscience is tyranny," Dan Kennedy, CEO of Human Life of Washington, told the Seattle Times last week. "There's no subtle or soft way to put the truth."

But it's ok to mandate the death of women? It's ok to mandate that the fetus a woman is carrying and possibly losing, is more important than the other children she has at home? It's ok to mandate that doctors; whose first rule is "to do no harm," should just let harm be done because this is just a woman who is bleeding out? It's ok to mandate everyone else's conscience? Is that what you're are mandating, Mr. Kennedy? Just want to get my facts straight. By the way; HEAR! HEAR! to the state of Washington!!

[GDWhiteman]

01:11 PM on 01/16/2012

Straight notion of conscience Mr Kennedy has, eh?

[sheahananne2]

02:10 PM on 01/16/2012

I think only as applies to his conscience, or those like-minded individuals collective conscience. I guess the rest of us must not have one, huh?

[Carriann Frye]

08:27 PM on 01/15/2012

I'm liking Washington state more and more!

[mirrorwrlds]

05:00 PM on 01/15/2012

Wedge topics are meant to divide the general public to effect the voter outcome. It is also needed to distract on the real issues that are facing most Americans, unemployment, lack of health care, Foreclosures and the fact the GOP party has no real answers other then lets do more of what we did in the past. We all know how well that worked except the GOP and the Tea Party have forgotten that because it is all Obama's fault.

[professor]

11:48 PM on 01/15/2012

Excellent analysis. If only liberals could understand this. They are as myopic as conservatives when it comes to issues like this one. Which is just fine for the conservatives. Everybody argues about abortion while Rome burns.

[megwright]

10:19 AM on 01/16/2012

Liberals would leave the issue alone if the rightwingers weren't so determined to do away with abortion rights altogether. My state passed 16 antiabortion laws in the past year, and has now rolled out a law that would ban and criminalize abortion completely. They hope it goes to the Supreme Court where they hope it will be upheld and will serve as a model for all the other states that want to ban abortion.

Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, and liberals would leave it at that. Do you think we WANT to have to keep refighting this battle in every election cycle when we ought to be talking about the economy and jobs?

[giftsthatpurr]

12:58 PM on 01/16/2012

We "libs" (aka women) know it is a wedge issue, but we also know how long and hard the fight has been to ensure women have access to safe, legal abortions. The "war on women" has already taken its toll in reduced clinics, fewer physicians willing to put their necks on the line to provide abortions, and women who have been intimidated into giving birth to unwanted children. In addition, poor women now have less access to health services formerly provided by Planned Parenthood because of the "squeeze" that has been put on these clinics in many states. Those of you who wish to ridicule anyone standing up to the dividers obviously aren't seeing the entire picture!

[Siara]

04:22 PM on 01/15/2012

It's about time pro-choice people took the offensive. I an SOOO sick of watching the army of Republican anachronisms stripping my granddaughters" rights.

[Jacqueline Homan]

06:04 PM on 01/15/2012

It would be a shame if you woman-haters don't have the right to forcibly conscript ALL women and girls into childbirth chattel slavery and sexual torture, violating OUR human rights.

[nikanj]

06:07 PM on 01/15/2012

The real shame is men not taking responsibility for where they leave their DNA . . .

[Lady1genius]

08:00 PM on 01/15/2012

From one grandma to another, I agree 100%. I wonder what kind of life will be left to my little granddaughters.

[fridakahlofan]

04:14 PM on 01/15/2012

All women may be moving to Washington soon.

[Jacqueline Homan]

05:09 PM on 01/15/2012

I know THIS woman is — and I will be offering my teenage step-granddaughter the option to move there with me, too.

[sudey2]

02:50 PM on 01/15/2012

Bravo! If only ALL the other states would follow Washington's intelligent example.

[cwebster]

06:11 PM on 01/15/2012

Key word is intelligence. GOP dominated states have none.

[Fedup Lisa]

02:21 PM on 01/15/2012

The Reproductive Parity Act is just a safeguard to protect the full range of reproductive health care options, including abortion that Washington has had in effect since 1991. Washington voters approved Initiative 120 in 1991, guaranteeing a woman's right to abortion and requiring health-insurance programs funded or administered by the state, such as Medicaid, to cover the procedure. Sixteen other states also allow public funding for abortion. Because federal law bans federal money for abortions, the state uses its own funds to pay for the procedure for Medicaid recipients. Washington's Insurance Commissioner's Office reports that all individual and small-group plans in Washington already cover abortion. Coverage by self-insured plans, which includes Regence and the Group Health Cooperative, indicated that most of their plans cover abortion. Supporters of this bill want to ensure that implementation of the federal health care reform law does not erode existing laws in Washington that protect women's reproductive rights.
I say, "Way to go, Washington!" It's refreshing that Washington puts the well being of its' citizens above political bullshit. More states should follow their lead! The time to voice opposition was in 1991. Where were all these concerned citizens then?

[megwright]

10:21 AM on 01/16/2012

Great post. Thanks.

[Robert A Hayes]

01:29 PM on 01/15/2012

...running at the speed of sound from the sound choices you made will seem like silence... but run always less the sounds of the cries catch up.

[Lady1genius]

08:04 PM on 01/15/2012

What?

[crosshatchaz]

08:19 PM on 01/15/2012

My sentiments exactly.

[megwright]

10:45 AM on 01/16/2012

Oh, baloney. If I'm correctly interpreting what you meant, you're trying to say that women who have abortions will always regret it. I'm an old lady, and over my lifetime I've known dozens of women who've had abortions. I don't know ONE who regrets it.

The only people who regret it, I'm sure, are those who go to fundy churches and make the mistake of admitting a past abortion. Then they're reminded regularly of the "sin" they committted, and told repeatedly that they're "traumatized" by it, that they regret it and their lives will never be the same. These are people who, left alone, wouldn't have had any more regrets than anyone else, but who, after the fundies got a hold of them, WERE traumatized.

[Lady1genius]

08:38 PM on 01/16/2012

Your guess is as good as mine, but the wording and grammar are so poor, I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

[anthonybrown]

04:55 AM on 01/17/2012

You are correct. They never regret it. Many of them are quite proud of the number of abortions they've had.

[Frickett]

01:22 PM on 01/15/2012

What I don't hear anyone saying is that choice (freedom) is the US Constitutional default mode.

The Volstead act ushered in Prohibition, which amounted to people being forbidden to drink alcohol by those who disapprove of drinking. We all know how well that worked out.

If you don't approve of abortion, don't have one. Nobody will force it on you. But everyone should be free to make their own choice in the matter.

Sometimes we have to pay for things through our taxes we don't like. I don't like war and I don't like religion, but my tax money gets spent for both. I have no kids in school, but my taxes go there too. My taxes pay Republican salaries and paid Dubya's and Cheney's salaries too.

[GDWhiteman]

03:21 PM on 01/15/2012

Your last sentence is the one that truly revolts me - but then I'm sure some of them feel the same way about progressive legislators.

[Frickett]

03:48 PM on 01/15/2012

I'm sure they do, but that's the point, isn't it?

[cwebster]

06:12 PM on 01/15/2012

Relevance??

[Lady1genius]

08:06 PM on 01/15/2012

Yes, but the people killed by the man from Germany were actual people, not potential people.

[AnAtheistRepublican]

11:32 AM on 01/15/2012

"I care less if you want to keep a life form in your womb or destroy it, it's your choice. But one thing I don't choose to accept is this notion that my taxes should paid for your own mess. You what to kill it, kill it with using your own money...."

[giftsthatpurr]

12:10 PM on 01/15/2012

So you keep saying - I suppose you think if you say it enough you will intimidate some poor woman - - - how's that workin for ya?

[EndRacismNow]

04:20 PM on 01/15/2012

If intimidation appeals to a young woman's conscience then so be it. I know people don't like to hear the truth but terminating a human being is just that.

[Justdontgetit]

12:14 PM on 01/15/2012

I don't want my taxes going to churches, but it does.

Since the churches pay no taxes, I'd call that social welfare at its worst.

[Sam Holloway]

11:18 AM on 01/15/2012

Dan Kennedy is a liar, and typical of the forced-birth, anti-woman crowd. He claims that the Washington state bill 'mandates' that he and other anti-woman activists violate their consciences. This is a lie on its face. No law forces any woman to have an abortion. If a woman's conscience directs her to attempt to carry any and all of her pregnancies to full term, there is no law forcing her to do otherwise. If Dan Kennedy's conscience informs him that he must use the law to interfere in the autonomy (as represented by personal medical decisions) of other citizens, then he is the tyrant. In other words, a fetus is not a citizen; a woman-- pregnant or not-- is a citizen.

[giftsthatpurr]

12:09 PM on 01/15/2012

Bravo - F/F

[GDWhiteman]

12:59 PM on 01/15/2012

The only "law" that forces women to have an abortion is in the Bible - Num 5:11-31