A ballot initiative could result in the GOP-led Legislature single-handedly requiring women to purchase extra insurance for abortions, including in cases of rape and incest.
If petition circulators get at least 258,088 valid signatures and the Legislature approves the issue, it will become law without a signature from the governor or a public vote.
If the secretary of state determines that the abortion opponents have gathered enough valid signatures on their petition, they would then submit the petitions to the Legislature, which would have 40 session days to vote to approve the petition. If approved, the measure would become law.
If the Legislature rejects the petition — an unlikely occurrence in the House and Senate, which have both Republican and anti-abortion majorities — it would go on the November 2014 ballot.
Because the federal Affordable Care Act eventually will require everyone to have health insurance, Right to Life of Michigan will embark on a petition drive to make sure that public and private health insurers offer only optional riders for abortion, instead of including the coverage in health plans.
The petition language makes an exception for primary coverage of abortions when the life of the mother is in question, but not for coverage of abortions in cases of rape or incest, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Meghan Groen noted.
Purchase of an insurance rider implies women plan for abortion — including due to rape or incest — something Groen said doesn’t happen.
She said such insurance riders are mostly unavailable and that an increase in available abortion riders would most likely rely on market demand.
“We don’t really know that that’s going to happen,” Groen said.
“Nobody anticipates having an unwanted pregnancy. I’ve never heard of a women out there who really wanted to have an abortion,” she added.
The state Board of Canvassers approved the petition form this month, and organizers can begin collecting signatures as soon as petitions are printed and circulators are trained, said Barbara Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan, which is behind the effort.
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Listing maintains the proposal is good public policy that prevents taxpayer from funding abortions. If approved by either the Legislature or voters, Michigan would become the 22nd state to require residents to plan for an abortion.
“Taxpayers should not have to use their money to provide for abortion,” Listing said.
Groen said the ballot language is disingenuous because the federal law prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger. Those restrictions also apply to health-care exchanges required under the law.
“We want to make sure people understand what they are actually signing. We really hope to get that education out there,” she said.
The Legislature added the optional rider language onto a bill last year that transformed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan into a nonprofit mutual insurer. Even though the bill was a priority for Gov. Rick Snyder, Snyder vetoed it because of the abortion language.
The governor argued the Blue Cross bill, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township, would have tampered in the private insurance industry.
Separate legislation that would require insurance riders has since been introduced and, if signed into law, would duplicate the Right to Life effort.
'An attack on women's health'
“This is an attack on women’s health, pushed by the same individuals who shut women down a year ago,” said Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, the former state representative who was silenced by House Republican leaders last year because of the language she used during a debate on abortion-related legislation.
“How many people think they’re going to have a miscarriage? How many people think they’re going to be raped? How can you even understand that’s going to happen to you?” she said.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion laws in the country, 21 states have some limits on insurance coverage for abortions, ranging from no coverage of the procedure for public employees in 18 states to no coverage at all in seven states — except if a woman’s life is at risk.
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