Evidently, 'tis the season to attack women's health care in Michigan -- again.
Last December, the state legislature used the lame duck session to shove through wildly unpopular restrictions on women's health care. Now, as December rolls back around, here comes another dangerous and deeply unpopular measure: A ban on private abortion insurance coverage. That ban would apply even in the case of rape. Even in the case of fetal anomaly. Even if the mother's health is in danger. Under the proposed law, if a woman wants insurance to cover abortion, she'll have to anticipate the need well in advance and purchase a separate rider to cover the procedure.
This dangerous proposal began this spring as a ballot initiative whipped up by Michigan's anti-choice conservatives. While polls showed that the initiative never had broad-based support, it only required the signatures of three percent of voters to send the proposal to Lansing. Now if the legislature passes it, the measure becomes law, immune from the governor's veto.
Michigan politicians have invoked this rarely-used legislative maneuver only five times in its history -- and three of those times it has been used to attack women's access to health care. We only wish that extreme conservatives had the same zeal for creating jobs or fixing public education as they do for playing doctor.
Insurance coverage of abortion is not a partisan issue -- it is a health issue. Last December, the Michigan Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposed an abortion insurance ban and "any legislation that seeks to restrict access to the legitimate medical services necessary to preserve and protect the reproductive health and well being of the women of Michigan." Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder vetoed the measure when it was passed last year because it went "too far" (a similar abortion insurance ban was also vetoed by former Republican Michigan Governor John Engler decades earlier). It's already against the law to use public funds to pay for abortions. Why would the legislature interfere with how private parties contract to cover a safe, legal and constitutionally protected medical procedure?
The medical community objects to the abortion insurance ban. Republican Party leaders have vetoed it in the past and polls show that only 36 percent of Michigan voters support the provision. So, how did we find ourselves at year's end facing this dangerous ban yet again? Michigan has become the latest battleground in a disturbing national trend wherein politicians to use arcane procedures and political maneuvers to pass anti-woman laws. In the past six months alone, we've seen this play out in Ohio, North Carolina and Texas -- resulting in numerous new restrictions on women's health in those states.
But Michigan now has the opportunity to break ranks with states that are turning the clock back on women's health. If the legislature refuses to vote on the proposed abortion insurance ban, the question can go to the people of this state as a ballot issue in 2014. Legislators should take this opportunity to stop injecting themselves into private health decisions and let Michigan voters decide what kind of insurance coverage is best for them and their families