Posted on 03/05/2014 5:59:23 PM PST by Morgana
FULL TITLE: It’s ‘not fair’ that insurance doesn’t have to pay for my abortion, woman testifies in Washington
OLYMPIA, WA, March 4, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Health insurance companies in Washington state currently have the right to choose not to pay for abortion. But one post-abortive woman testified on Monday that as far as she's concerned, “That's not fair.”
Christine Kocsis, who paid for her own abortion in New York seven years ago, urged legislators to support the “Reproductive Parity Act” during a hearing on Monday. The bill would require any insurance company that covers prenatal care for expectant mothers to also pay for abortion. Christine Kocsis, left, pleads her case. Christine Kocsis, left, pleads her case.
Kocsis admitted the issue did not apply in her situation, because “I didn't have insurance then.” But she added, “I cannot imagine if I had been in that place in my life, and I had been paying for insurance and found out it would only cover me if I carried my pregnancy to term.”
“That's not fair," she said emphatically.
But social conservatives and free marketeers say it is unfair to compel a business owner, especially a religious one, to cover abortion under penalty of law.
Sen. Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, successfully blocked the bill last year. Some of her constituents have opted to go uninsured in order to avoid indirectly subsidizing abortion. They deserve to be covered, Becker said.
“We can't take that choice away,” Sen. Becker added.
Kocsis' words came as part of a panel presentation before 11 Democratic state senators, who called an ad hoc hearing that they alone attended.
“For everything the Affordable Care Act has to offer,” state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said, “it does not guarantee women full access to all reproductive services, specifically abortion.”
Others who spoke on Monday included Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Community Abortion Information and Resource Project (a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds, which hosts an annual bowl-a-thon to raise money for abortion). The state chapters of NARAL and the ACLU have also backed the bill.
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The debate is likely to continue, as it has the last several years. The state House passed the bill last year by a 53-43 margin and again this year, 54-44. But the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus, comprised of 24 Republicans and two Democrats, did not bring the bill up for a vote.
It is expected to die in the Senate again this year, although Democratic Governor Jay Inslee has promised to sign the bill if it lands on his desk.
Lisa M. Stone, the executive director of the pro-abortion law group Legal Voice, said last year the bill had to pass.
“We need to ensure that Washington maintains its values,” she said.
Wouldn't that be illegal “sexual orientation” discrimination?
ie Natural women, who have some degree of mental angst regarding the size and shape of their natural female breasts would not also get a breast enlargement/reduction/reshaping for strictly elective preferential cosmetic reasons, partially or totally paid for via any health insurance policy.
At some point, sanity must return to humankind.
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