Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a bill into law incentivizing more women to abort their unborn babies by requiring that health insurance plans cover abortion on demand.
Inslee signed a bill to force health insurance plans to cover abortions if they also cover maternity care. The bill also would set up a program to pay for abortions for women without insurance and those on Medicaid, with state taxpayer funds.
At the bill’s signing, Inslee said it would “make sure that women have access to the full spectrum of healthcare they need without cost barriers or stigma.”
“Reproductive healthcare, including family planning and abortion, is healthcare,” he added.
“No woman should have to seek or pay for an additional rider or copay or have any other means of delay or financial burden for this coverage,” state Sen. Steve Hobbs, the bill’s sponsor, told the Associated Press in January.
The bill had the support of abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
“We are done with politicians’ attacks on our freedoms and our healthcare,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Now is the time to unite and fight for everyone’s right to control our own bodies and futures.”
Leading pro-life groups strenuously opposed the bill.
“It would require contraception and abortion coverage while violating the constitutionally-protected conscious rights of individuals, churches, businesses and others,” Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle and Washington State Catholic Conference, said at a hearing on the bill. “Maintaining the state’s commitment to religious freedom is vital.”
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Sartain added that since Catholic Churches and other morally objecting organizations cannot cover contraception and abortion, a legal challenge would ensue if the bill becomes law.
“The sincerely held religious beliefs of a vast majority of this state are being violated by this bill,” State Rep. Matt Shea (R) said.
The new law seems ripe for a legal challenge from those forced to fund abortions with their tax dollars or via their employee health care plans.
In January, a Marist poll found strong opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions. Consistent with previous findings, 60 percent of Americans said they oppose taxpayer funding for abortions.
Doctor-prescribed suicide also is legal in Washington state, making it one of the most anti-life places in the world.
ACTION: Complain to Governor Inslee by going here.
