Abortion Opponents Push State Laws To Prohibit Abortion Coverage in Private Health Plans

May 17, 2010 — After opposing the federal health reform law (PL 111-148), antiabortion-rights groups are using its provisions to enact state-level restrictions on abortion coverage in private health plans that will operate in insurance exchanges beginning in 2014, the AP/Washington Post reports.

The federal health law requires private insurance plans selling policies that include abortion coverage in the exchanges to collect two separate premium payments from consumers -- one for abortion coverage and one for all other services. The insurers must keep the abortion-coverage payments in separate accounts to ensure that public money does not subsidize abortion coverage.

According to the AP/Post, the law recognizes that states can enact additional restrictions on abortion coverage for private plans available through the exchanges. Mary Harned, an attorney for Americans United for Life, said lawmakers or public policy groups in 29 states have expressed serious interest in legislation that would limit private insurers' ability to cover abortion care.

Prior to the federal reform law, five states -- Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma -- limited private insurers' coverage of abortion services. Abortion-rights advocates are concerned that more states will act to restrict private abortion coverage in the wake of the reform law. Currently, most private plans cover abortion care.

Jessica Arons, director of women's health at the Center for American Progress, said, "It's really going to be a patchwork of state laws by the time these exchanges are set up."

Since President Obama signed the health law on March 23, Arizona and Tennessee have enacted laws that prohibit private insurance coverage of abortion in insurance exchanges. Similar bills are before the governors of Florida, Mississippi and Missouri. Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma also could act on similar legislation this year, the AP/Post reports.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), an abortion-rights supporter, said, "Implementation of this reform should be about increasing access to health care and increasing choices, not taking them away." She added, "Health care reform is not an excuse to take rights away from women" (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Washington Post, 5/16).