The controversial law regarding coverage for abortions has now become effective in the state.
The highly controversial Abortion Insurance Opt-Out law, which has been nicknamed the “rape insurance” law, has now gone into effect in the state of Michigan, which would require women to purchase separate plans in order to cover an abortion except in a case in which the woman was a victim of a sexual crime that caused her to become pregnant, or if the unborn baby was putting the woman’s life at risk.
Supporters have say that it gives people who are against abortion the ability to choose separate plans.
They believe that people who are against abortions should be able to choose health insurance coverage that does not provide coverage for that specific procedure. That said, all plans still have so-called rape insurance, in that if a woman should be a victim of that crime, or if her life was being put in danger by her pregnancy, then her standard plan would still provide coverage for an abortion if this was her choice.
Opponents to the rape insurance law have said that it would require a woman to have to predict being sexually assaulted.
Those against this new law have said that it forces women to have to forecast being a victim of rape that would cause them to become pregnant and then make sure that they have purchased this additional coverage before they have experienced the sexual assault. According to the chairperson of the Women’s Democratic Caucus, Rep. Marcia Hovey-Wright, “This law unfairly punishes women simply for being women.”
In Hovey-Wright’s statement, she added that “Women deserve the same access to full health care as men receive, but only women are told they must buy extra insurance to get it.” There was a highly volatile and emotional debate over the law, when Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer revealed that she had been a victim of rape when she was in college, and she pleaded with her colleagues not to vote for the measure.
Republican Governor Rick Snyder had previously vetoed the rape insurance legislation, but this time the citizen’s initiative petition process was used by the Right to Life organization in the state in order to waive the need for Snyder’s signature.
