“Rape Insurance”…”Just In Case…
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 13th, 2014
Good morning!
…you might be raped.”
Today, Michigan’s “Rape Insurance” law goes into affect. Yep, you read that right. Michigan is requiring women to get extra insurance in planning ahead for the need for an abortion if they are raped.
Watch from The Rachel Maddow Show:
….or read from The Lansing State Journal:
Abortion rider law takes effect Thursday
No companies offering them on private plans
Anti-abortion activist and attorney Rebecca Kiessling, center, and others who say they were born as a result of rape, urged lawmakers to pass the citizen-initiated proposed law targeting insurance coverage of abortion in Michigan. The law takes effect Thursday / AP Photo/David Eggert
Michigan residents who buy health coverage in the private marketplace after Thursday will not have access to abortion coverage, even if a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
On that day, a new state law goes into effect that prohibits insurance companies from covering abortion services unless customers purchase separate add-ons — called riders — to their insurance plans ahead of time.
No insurance companies will be offering those riders to new customers in the private marketplace after Thursday, according to the state’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services.
Insurers had to tell the state in February if they planned to offer and sell the abortion riders. Seven companies indicated they plan to do so but only as part of employer-based plans, department spokesman Caleb Buhs said.
That means anyone who purchases insurance as an individual — either inside or outside the new federal health-care exchange — will not be able to obtain coverage for abortion services.
“People who buy coverage for themselves and their families will not find this coverage,” said Marianne Udow-Phillips of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation. “It will not be available to them.”
It’s unclear how much the riders in the employer-sponsored plans will cost. Buhs said one company has listed the rider at 32 cents per month.
The Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act was passed in December by the Republican-controlled Legislature after an emotional and heated debate that garnered national attention.
Proponents say the law protects those who object to abortion from having any of their premiums used to cover the procedure for other customers in their group plans or within the health-care exchange.
“Do we anticipate this will lower abortion rates? No,” said Right to Life Michigan spokeswoman Genevieve Marnon. “But … it’s one thing for you to pay for your abortion and another thing for me to have to pay for it.”
Opponents say the bill threatens women’s health by limiting access to a procedure that is legal and constitutionally protected.
Democrats labeled it the “rape insurance bill” because it would, in effect, require women to buy abortion coverage in advance even if they never expect to need it — such as if a woman becomes pregnant from a rape.
Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said women who aren’t aware the riders are required or who don’t receive insurance through one of the seven companies will suffer financially and emotionally.
“ A woman in need of a medically necessary D&C procedure will not even have insurance as an option, meaning she would be required to pay for the procedure entirely on her own with a cost often totaling in the tens of thousands of dollars,” Whitmer said.
“This isn’t talking about someone looking for an elective abortion. This is a woman with a wanted pregnancy who is forced to terminate it because of health concerns and may now may face financial ruin for doing nothing more than trying to start a family. If that’s not a direct attack on women and our health to say insurance can’t cover this type of critically important reproductive care, I don’t know what is.”
Although the law is intended to remove abortion from the list of procedures automatically covered by insurance, the majority of elective abortions in Michigan and nationwide are already paid out-of-pocket.
Only 3 percent of the 22,700 abortions in Michigan in 2012 were paid for with insurance, according to the most recent numbers from the Department of Community Health.
The total number of abortions in Michigan has also plummeted. The 22,700 abortions in 2012 reflects 52 percent drop since 1987.
Marnon said the numbers were not the point of the opt-out bill. It was the fact that someone could unknowingly be helping to pay for even one procedure they oppose on moral grounds.
*****
Readers: This is just outrageous. What is going on here? Really? Yes, this is really happening. Okkayy. Time to get back in the driver’s seat. I HOPE all of you are with me because this crazy bumpy ride has got to end.
Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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March 13th, 2014 at 10:23 pm
This is alarming: The National Journal warns that a “Republican wave in 2014 [is] looking more likely.” The Kochs’ deceptive attacks — an unprecedented $30 million so far — have moved the Senate into play for the Republicans, and if the GOP wins just six key races, they will take total control.
But we’re fighting back — Rachel Maddow reports that our new strategy is “holding [the Kochs] accountable for the ads their money buys,” and she’s right: tomorrow, our Koch Accountability Campaign will launch new ads to expose the Kochs and their ultimate goal: a Republican Senate that could hand them billions in tax breaks on the backs of struggling Americans.
We still need 4,500 folks like you to step up to fill the funding hole in this plan, or we won’t be able to hold the Kochs accountable, and their lies will hand the GOP control of the Senate. Will you step up?
March 14th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
I do appreciate how everyone is making excellent points about rape/incest/developmental defects, but these cases should not be the only reason for us to support abortion coverage on healthcare plans.
A compromise that comes from this argument could be to cover abortion in these cases, but not all abortions, which is also really not cool. Definitely better than zero mandatory abortion coverage, but it is still demonizing abortion and those who opt to have one.
It is a bit disheartening that the main opposing argument seems to be, “but what about the women who weren’t stupid enough to get accidentally pregnant?”
I got pregnant when I was younger in a consenual, kin-free relationship and had an abortion, does that make me a worse person than a woman who had an abortion after being raped? Of course she is apparently still a terrible person, just slightly less terrible, or so the compromisers seem to think.
Also, as a born-and-raised Michigander, this legislation took me by surprised and I am fairly disappointed. This kind of shit seems more at home in the bible belt, not in a state where people mostly seem to mind their own business, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of their deer-hunting.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
I strongly dislike this bill and am very against it. However, when I read the headline “Rape Insurance”, I was expecting something really different.
This bill affects lots of people who need access to abortion for lots of different reasons, not limited to rape. And not all women who are raped need or want to have an abortion. So, I agree with this 100% but I think calling it “rape insurance” is not really accurate.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:12 pm
RAGE.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:12 pm
I live in Michigan and I have been angry to the point of wanting to retaliate against these pieces of human garbage for over a day (since I heard of this passing *spit spit*) and I may just have a rage stroke.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:13 pm
I agree with your beautifully written piece s.e.smith. Michigan has a history of passing ridiculous legislation. It used to make me crazy, so I moved to a different state.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:13 pm
I can’t believe they fucking this passed. I cannot express how much this angers me. Hulk levels of anger
March 14th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
*@(%&(@$&!
People suck.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Such flawed Republican logic… I mean, what if someone’s a vegan and objects to providing a heart operation to someone who clogged their arteries with years of eating meat? Should they be allowed to inflict their beliefs on the meat eater? I think not!
March 14th, 2014 at 1:16 pm
This bill is repugnant, but can we stop referring to it as the ‘rape insurance’ bill? Rape is not the only reason people get abortions, and we shouldn’t be encouraging the acceptable abortion/unacceptable abortion dichotomy.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:18 pm
As a Michigander, I was appalled when this ended up being passed.
I’m Getting the fuck out of Dodge, as soon as possible.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:19 pm
Jezebel as a general rule usually drops the ball on a lot of things. I thought this part of their write up was pretty good though,
“Baby’s brain developing outside of its skull? If you want your insurance to cover your abortion, you should have planned for that heartbreaking tragedy in advance! Did you get raped and become pregnant as a result?
Guess you should have thought of your rapeability and fecundity before you tried to save a few dollars on the health insurance exchange, missy! Victim of incest? I mean that sucks but how about plan a little better next time, ok, kid”
March 14th, 2014 at 1:21 pm
Sarah, I’ve thought about this a lot when I hear conservative politicians say awful things about rape. Obviously, no one is to blame for these views but them, but I do wonder if the focus on rape/incest from the left as the reason we must keep abortion legal facilitated this focus.
Because we keep talking about rape, we’ve made it the only thing they need to respond to when talking about abortion, so they’re now going after rape victims.
It honestly makes me angry that in mainstream politics, left or right, we’re only talking about rape to talk about abortion with the number of people who are sexually assaulted. It needs to be discussed in it’s own right
March 14th, 2014 at 1:22 pm
I agree Sarah#5. There’s no need. We know what happens when abortions are made illegal or so costly that only a few women can afford them.
The abortion rate doesn’t decrease, but the number of women who are killed or seriously injured from botched procedures skyrockets. It’s what happened here when it was illegal, and it’s what happens in other countries where it’s illegal or extremely expensive.
Therefore, not insuring abortions puts women in danger. No need to bring rape or incest into it.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:23 pm
As a Michigan Democrat and one who works in politics here, I very much understand their using that tagline to grab attention and point out one of its largest absurdities.
While you clearly understand the importance of this issue, a lot of people in Michigan didn’t. Because of that ignorance, apathy and uncertainty, this bill received very little attention until the past week.
Few people outside of the anti-reproductive rights groups saw this coming. Those groups are coming out swinging in my state and elsewhere, and they will do whatever it takes. If that tagline gets peoples’ attention, so be it.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:25 pm
yeah, I’m from michigan but don’t live there right now and I’m all like aoihtgoewsdvhfuaiwejfialdfbnieowjfoajv about this
March 14th, 2014 at 1:26 pm
Well right, it’s a slippery slope. If we’re going to pretend that unplanned pregnancies aren’t a problem for all of us, what else can we pretend isn’t a problem for all of us?
Lung cancer because people smoke? Liver disease because people drink? Ingrown toenails because people wear high heels? The list is ENDLESS. It reaches to INFINITY for the ridiculous ways people can feign “outrage” against having to help shoulder the cost of health care.
This bill negates the point of healthcare, and the GOP are complete hypocrites. They are against obamacare because they don’t think the government should meddle in a private sector industry (which would be health care).
They call this “socialism” and manage to scare people because they don’t have a clue what it’s about.
March 14th, 2014 at 1:27 pm
But they are willing to meddle and make their own changes as they see fit. How can this be? Why is it SOCIALISM when Obama wants everyone to have coverage, but it’s not when they try to define the parameters of coverage? BS.
So yeah, I get that people disagree with abortion. Good, they never have to have one. But they have no right to tell someone else if they can have one, like you pointed out, would we be making this same argument about Vegans versus omnivores? Not likely.