LANSING — Abortion opponents, stung in December when Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed legislation that would have required those buying health insurance to purchase a separate rider to cover abortions, have a new tactic — one that would bypass Snyder’s pen and statewide ballots.
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.
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. Seven other states also have the ability to create law by “indirect initiative,” according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.
The state Board of Canvassers approved the petition form Wednesday, 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.
“This is good public policy,” she said of the effort to make Michigan the 22nd state to require residents to plan ahead for an abortion. “Taxpayers should not have to use their money to provide for abortion.”
If the proposal becomes law, it would require all private and public health insurance plans to offer a separate rider for an abortion. And people would have to buy that rider before a pregnancy.
That’s the rub for abortion-rights activists. Dozens of people — many dressed in bright-pink Planned Parenthood T-shirts — crammed into the state Board of Canvassers meeting to protest the petition drive.
“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.
Optional riders aren’t unusual for health insurance plans and can include everything from prescription, dental and vision coverage to extra visits for physical therapy to nurse visits, said Paul Duguay of the Michigan Association of Health Plans. Optional abortion-coverage riders are already available under some health plans for employers who don’t want to pay for the coverage, but the petition drive seeks to make them required under all health insurance plans.
“Right to Life isn’t able to do this through the regular legislative process, and now they’re trying to tell private business what to do,” said Shelli Weisberg, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is counterintuitive to the Republican agenda.”
But it’s not uncommon. 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.
According to a study by the institute in 2010, about 30% of the women seeking abortions had insurance that covered the procedure and only about one-third of those women actually used the insurance. The rest paid out of pocket — at a cost ranging from $450 to $1,500, depending on how far along the pregnancy was — for a number of reasons, including high deductibles and a desire to keep their employer or family from finding out about the abortion.
“We’re a pro-choice organization, so our position is that abortion is part of health care, and all women’s health care needs to be covered by a health plan,” said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager of the institute. “Nobody is thinking about an abortion when they’re lining up their health plan.”
The Legislature added the optional rider language onto a bill last year that transformed Blue Cross Blue Shield into a nonprofit mutual insurer. Even though the bill was a priority for Snyder, he vetoed it because of the abortion language.
But 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 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.
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Meghan Groen said that by using this petition initiative, which requires 258,055 signatures, only 3.4% of Michigan’s registered voters would be making a decision affecting the entire state.
“By pursuing this initiative, extremists in the Legislature are trying to go around Gov. Snyder,” she said. “We are dedicated to making sure that this effort fails.”
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