A House committee passed changes to a Senate abortion bill Tuesday after refusing to hear public comment or make the changes available for review before the vote.
The House Insurance Committee adopted a new version of Senate Bill 98, which would prohibit the state employee health plan from covering abortions except in a medical emergency.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, has already passed the Senate. Hill appeared before the House Insurance Committee on Tuesday and was presented the changes the committee wanted to consider, changes that only committee members had been privy to.
“With all due respect I’d like to hear some discussion,” Hill said after receiving the new version. “I’m not going to offer advice pro or con on something I’ve seen for three or four minutes.”
The version of the bill that passed the Senate March 3 also barred the State Health Benefit Plan from covering abortions. It said, “No health insurance plan shall offer coverage for abortion services except in the case of medical emergency.”
The version the House committee approved says the state plan shall not cover expenses “for abortion services, except to the extent permitted under rules or regulations of the board as such existed on Jan. 1., 2014.”
The board of the Department of Community Health, which overseas the state health plan, voted 5-3 in August, at the urging of Gov. Nathan Deal, to bar coverage of abortions. Deal’s effort came after a similar bill failed on the final day of the 2013 legislative session.
SB 98 was designed to add the DCH decision to permanent law. The original Senate bill did that, and it remains unclear why the House panel made the change.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Rep. Rich Golick, R-Smyra, said he thinks the bill “doesn’t provide for there to be alteration from that, it simply takes that regulation and codifies it. It doesn’t allow DCH to go beyond that.”
The committee approved the changes by a voice vote with no public testimony, with three Democratic members voting against it.
Afterward, opponents of the bill were not pleased. Jackie Rodriguez, president of the Georgia chapter of the National Organization of Women, said the changes were not as important as the overall bill.
“You just saw 15 men and only 2 women decide access to abortion for women in Georgia,” Rodriguez said, noting the gender breakdown of the committee.
“This is not about insurance, this is about women and it’s an attack on your reproductive rights,” Rodriguez said.
Asked after the meeting why no public testimony was taken, committee Chairman Rep. Richard Smith, R-Columbus, said there was plenty of comment when the bill was heard in the Senate. When it was pointed out that the Senate version was different, Smith just noted that there are only four days left in this legislative session.
About the Author
