In states across the country, Republicans are making it illegal for private health insurers to cover abortion.
Ironically, President Obama’s federal health care reform law has become a vehicle for their efforts. Right now, the majority of private health plans include abortion coverage. But as the states set up health care “exchanges” under federal health care reform, Republican state legislators are making sure they cut abortion out.
“This will make abortion coverage increasingly hard to get, as the ex changes become the de facto standard of insurance coverage,” Tait Sye of Planned Parenthood explains.
Over the last two years, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia have prohibited insurance coverage in the exchanges. Six states have forbidden all private health insurance coverage of abortion. Eight more are cutting funding for Planned Parenthood.
