(VIDEO) Women’s Groups Campaign To Keep, Restore Abortion Coverage in High-Risk Insurance Pools

State and national groups have ratcheted up pressure on efforts to further undermine women's coverage of abortion care in high-risk insurance plans, and to restore that coverage at the national level by demanding HHS repeal regulations promulgated in July.  High-risk insurance pools, by definition, are supposed to cover all needs of high-risk patients.

Yesterday, Pennsylvanians for Choice, a statewide coalition of pro-choice organizations, denounced proposed legislation that would severely restrict access to abortion care in Pennsylvania. The bill in question, Senate Bill 1399 was introduced by Pennsylvania State Senator Don White (R-11) and would ban private insurance plans sold in Pennsylvania’s state exchange, created under health care reform, from covering even medically necessary abortion procedures.

 The insurance exchanges, slated to be available for enrollment in 2014, will serve those who do not have access to employer-based health plans including the unemployed and small business employees.

Opponents argue that the bill, if passed, would contravene existing law in at least one area.  The proposed ban would deny insurance plans participating in the exchange from covering abortion care except in cases where the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or where the life of the woman is in danger.  Susan Frietsche, Senior Staff Attorney at the Women’s Law Project, pointed out that

“in the Medicaid context, Pennsylvania courts have already ruled that it’s unconstitutional to make rape survivors jump through the kind of insulting and burdensome hoops this bill would create.”

The bill would require rape survivors to “personally” report the crime and identify the assailant, if known, within 72 hours in order for their health insurance to cover an abortion procedure.

The effort in Pennsylvania is part of an onslaught of efforts at the state and federal level to undermine existing insurance coverage for women in the United States.  More than three-quarters of women in the United States covered by private insurance have coverage for abortion care.  This is now being taken away piece by piece.

“Today, most private insurance plans cover abortion care,” said Frietshe.  “Senator White’s proposal would leave women worse off than they were before health care reform began.” Under Senator White’s bill, no abortion plan that contracts with the state exchange would be permitted to cover abortion except in the narrowest circumstances.

According to Pennsylvanians for Choice, a ban of this magnitude would have a devastating effect on Pennsylvania women.

“Aside from having some of the oldest and most stringent abortion laws in the nation, Pennsylvania, like every other state, is bound by the Nelson abortion provision to the federal health care law,” said Sari Stevens, Executive Director of the Harrisburg-based Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates. 

Under the Nelson abortion provision, she noted, any health insurance plan that contracts with the exchange is required to implement a complex system of segregation to ensure no federal funds are used for abortion coverage – including the collection of two separate payments from the beneficiary, one for abortion coverage and one for all other health care coverage.

These efforts come at the same time that a coalition of national groups have increased pressure on the Obama Administration to repeal the regulations it issued banning abortion coverage in Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plans (PCIPs).  These plans, created by Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are supposed to help people who have been unable to get health insurance because of pre-existing medical conditions, until 2014 when insurance plans can no longer reject people with pre-existing conditions.  These plans cover women with such conditions as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other life-threatening conditions. Often pregnancy can exacerbate such conditions or hamper treatment, threatening the long-term health and life of women at risk.

The campaign, called Tell Washington NOW, features the stories of real women who have faced life-threatening conditions due to pregnancy.  For example, Kara from Pennsylvania:

“I have cancer and I’m pregnant.  Seven days after I found out I was pregnant, I also found out I have a new lesion on my bladder.  I know the drill already; I’ve been through chemo and had pieces of my bladder removed last time around.  The doctors say I could continue this pregnancy – and I really WANT to have this baby.  But, they also say that it means I’ll have to delay fighting the cancer, which is a big risk.  I already have a daughter and I don’t want her to grow up without her mom.  I want to do everything I can to protect my health, so I decided to have an abortion.”

The site also provides links to key documents from the Department of Health and Human Services, the White House, and elsewhere.

The national coalition consists of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need, the National Network of Abortion Funds, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, Reproductive Health Technologies Project

Meanwhile, Pennsylvanians for Choice argues that the public is behind their cause.

“Poll after poll shows that Pennsylvanians are not interested in reopening the debate around abortion. I urge Pennsylvania lawmakers to follow the lead of their constituents and support measures to prevent unintended pregnancy in the first place,” added Stevens.  

“Instead of denying Pennsylvania women access to fundamental reproductive health care services, politicians should be working to protect and advance women’s health,” says Rebecca Foley of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit WOMEN’S WAY. “This proposed ban will leave many Pennsylvania women without coverage for safe, legal, and critical care.”