Michigan Democrats just passed an oppressive pro-abortion bill that forces employers to make an unfair choice: cover elective abortions in their employee health plans or don’t provide maternity benefits at all.
State pro-life and religious organizations expressed outrage after Senate Bill 147 passed the Michigan Senate on Thursday in a 20-18 party-line vote. The state House also passed the bill Wednesday in a 56-52 vote. It now heads to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a pro-abortion Democrat, who is expected to sign it.
“Employers will be forced to either violate their conscience or not provide employees with health benefits. Conscience rights were always protected in Michigan, even under the rule of Roe v. Wade,” said Genevieve Marnon, legislative director at Right to Life of Michigan.
Proponents of the bill said they just want to ensure women have access to “medical care,” according to WEMU.
State Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, the lead sponsor of the bill, asserted that Michigan voters support her bill, pointing to Proposal 3, a ballot measure that voters approved in November to add a pro-abortion amendment to the state constitution.
Geiss argued that abortion is medical care, therefore employers should be forced to cover elective abortions if they provide medical, pregnancy and parenting benefits to their employees.
“We don’t [make exceptions] for any other medical care, and it shouldn’t be any different for people who need to seek out an abortion,” she said.
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But killing unborn babies is not health care. Republican lawmakers slammed Geiss’s pro-abortion bill as “incredibly offensive” because it will force pro-life employers to pay for abortions, according to the report.
“By forcing an employer, whether it’s your church or my farm or something, to have to support financially someone getting an abortion is incredibly offensive,” state Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, said.
According to Right to Life of Michigan, the bill goes far beyond pro-abortion lawmakers’ claims that they just want to “codify Roe v. Wade” in Michigan. Under Roe, state laws protected the conscience rights of employers by allowing them to refuse to pay for unborn babies to be killed in elective abortions in their employee health insurance plans.
Now, Marnon said employers will be forced to make an unreasonable choice.
“Employers will be forced to either violate their conscience or not provide employers with health benefits. Conscience rights were always protected in Michigan, even under the rule of Roe v. Wade,” she said.
The Michigan Catholic Conference also criticized the bill, calling it a “grave injustice” against unborn babies and employers, according to the Detroit Catholic.
“It is a grave injustice that abortion — the intentional act to end a preborn child’s life — is being forced upon employers and fellow employees who might object as a matter of conscience,” said Rebecca Mastee, policy advocate for the conference. “Abortion is not the same as childbirth, nor does it represent ethical health care in any way.”
Last fall, the pro-abortion movement, heavily funded by out-of-state billionaires, misled and lobbied Michigan voters to pass a state constitutional amendment that declares abortion to be a “fundamental right.” Donors included an executive from the former cryptocurrency company FTX, which now face numerous charges for fraud, conspiracy and unlawful political donations.
After the amendment passed, pro-life advocates warned that other abortion regulations, including parental consent for minors, a ban on late-term abortions, conscience protections and more, also could be repealed.
Aborting unborn babies for any reason up to viability has been legal in Michigan since the 1970s, and about 30,000 are aborted every year.
In recent years, more people are dying in Michigan than are being born, according to a recent report from MLive journalist Taylor DesOrmeau.
