Antiabortion-Rights Advocates 'Keep Hammering Away' At Rights, Opinion Piece Says

Republican-led state legislatures in six states "want to deny women insurance coverage for abortions, even those willing to pay for a special rider with their own dollars," despite the national health reform law's (PL 111-148) ban on federal funding for abortion services, Business Week columnist Ann Woolner writes. "You would think abortion is illegal, or that everyone in the country holds the same religious view on when life begins," Woolner writes, adding, "But for those who oppose abortion rights, there is always another way to make it as difficult and as expensive as possible to exercise them."

State lawmakers are using a provision in the reform law to introduce bills that would "prevent all insurance plans in yet-to-be-formed exchanges from offering any kind of abortion coverage," as well as to prohibit women who "pay extra, with their own money, to buy abortion coverage," Woolner writes. Four states "already forbid most private insurance plans from offering abortion coverage except when the woman's life is in danger," and a fifth state "allows coverage in cases of rape and incest, too," she continues, noting that "customers can pay extra for insurance riders" in those states, but "[w]hether anyone actually buys the riders is a very good question."

"Regardless of who pays for what coverage, access to abortion is already shrinking," as states "keep enacting more and more barriers," Woolner says. "My point is that antiabortion forces have become so powerful that by the time the Supreme Court decides to reconsider Roe v. Wade, there won't be many abortion rights to strike down or protect," she continues. "Until they can win an outright ban, the antiabortion-rights people keep hammering away at access," Woolner writes, concluding, "They know that a right isn't much good if people can't actually use it" (Woolner, Business Week, 4/8).


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