On Monday, Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer sent out a press release touting that she had signed the final piece of the Reproduction Health Act. In doing so, she has repealed a ban on insurance companies covering abortion. Previously, Michiganders had to get a separate rider on their insurance coverage – something that Whitmer and the Democrats have called “rape insurance.”
Whitmer said in her press release about the legislation, “Ten years ago today, I was in the Michigan Senate, fighting against an unconscionable anti-choice bill that would have forced Michiganders to pay extra for insurance every month just in case they were raped or had an unwanted pregnancy. I shared my own story as a survivor of sexual assault and noted that any decision about a woman’s body ought to be hers alone. Exactly ten years later, I am proud to be repealing that same bill as governor…Let’s keep protecting every Michigander’s fundamental freedom to make their own decision about their own body.”
In addition to repealing the ban, the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) also repeals restrictions on abortion providers, repeals a law that criminalizes nurses and doctors for prescribing abortion medication, and ensures students at Michigan public universities have access to information about their reproductive health options.
House Speaker Pro Tem Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia), chair of the Progressive Women’s Caucus says about the legislation, “For decades, politicians bent on eliminating access to safe, legal abortion have enacted a range of laws to further that ambition – from banning the nonexistent practice of partial-birth abortion to requiring people to buy a separate insurance rider to obtain coverage for abortion services. HB 4949, in addition to codifying the rights granted by Proposal 3 into state law, repeals these and other outdated, harmful laws to secure for Michiganders the reproductive freedom they overwhelmingly voted to grant themselves.”
In response to Gov. Whitmer’s signing of the legislation, Right to Life Of Michigan (RTL) sent out a press release regarding the governor signing House Bill 4949. Genevieve Marnon, Legislative Director of RTL, said, “Under the guise of expanding abortion access, the Governor has just mandated that all Michigan taxpayers pay for other peoples’ abortions through insurance purchased on the state exchanges. Today was all about forcing Michigan taxpayers, already experiencing financial strain from inflation, to fund the Governor’s singular policy focus – abortion.”
Marnon added about the legislation put in place by Michigan Democrats and signed by the governor, “Do not be fooled. This bill has nothing to do with access to abortion for women who have been subjected to sexual abuse. Women in Michigan have full access to abortion up until birth for any reason whatsoever.”
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