State-sponsored insurance plans would not pay for abortion procedures, as Senate Republicans passed new restrictions Monday that would also prohibit abortion coverage through insurance exchanges offered via the Affordable Healthcare Act.
Senate Bill 98 makes no exception for rape or incest, only allowing consideration of a medical emergency involving the life of the mother. The bill doesn't make any medical procedure that is legal today illegal. It instead dictates how medical care involving abortions is paid for through the state health plans and through insurance exchanges offered via the Affordable Healthcare Act.
"Twenty-four states have enacted laws allowing for the exclusion" of state tax dollars going toward abortion coverage, Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, said about the bill, which has been blasted by women's advocate groups as a battle in what they call a war against women. Those states include neighbors such as Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.
“The decisions not to fund abortions with taxpayers’ dollars does not put obstacles in the way of a woman wanting an abortion,” McKoon said. “Once again, we’ve got a false argument for there being a war on women when there isn’t.”
The two-hour debate followed an early morning skirmish about the bill in the Senate chamber, which inflamed several senators on both sides of the argument. Women in the Senate Democratic Caucus had placed a wire coat hanger on every senator’s desk, with a picture of the Statue of Liberty, the words “liberty, dignity and choice” and a passage about how women used metal hangers to induce abortions when they did not have access to medically safe procedures.
Senate leadership ordered the hangers removed before the Senate came to order, saying they were out of order, but the hangers reappeared suddenly during the debate in the hands of several senators incensed by the bill.
"If a 10-year-old child is raped by a family member or even a stranger, her family would not be able to seek abortion services … without paying full costs out of pocket," said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta. Two years ago, Orrock protested a bill restricting late-term abortions in Georgia by wrapping herself in yellow police tape and marching — with other opponents — down the Senate aisle shouting, "We will remember!"
Georgia has the worst maternal mortality rate in the nation, Orrock reminded the chamber Monday. She noted the sponsor of the late-term abortion bill lost his seat in the next election, even though the bill passed and became law.
The sponsor of SB 98, Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, tried and failed last year to pass the state insurance ban. During the offseason, when the state Legislature was not in session, Gov. Nathan Deal instead ordered the ban administratively. Deal has said he felt he dealt with the issue then, but Hill said he continued to push the bill because he didn't want a future governor to reverse course and allow taxpayer money to be used to help women have abortions.
Under the bill, women who use state insurance plans would have to pay for abortions using private funds only, even if they make the decision for medical reasons. The bill essentially would write Deal’s administrative order into state law.
The bill also seeks to restrict abortion coverage in insurance exchanges offered through the ACA in Georgia. Under federal law, health insurance plans offering abortion coverage are allowed to participate in a state’s exchange and receive federal subsidies unless a state legislature enacts a law to restrict abortion coverage by participating plans.
The health care law does not provide federal funding for abortion. Some individuals may have the opportunity to buy abortion coverage on the exchanges, but they already have an option not to buy it.
SB 98 passed on a largely party-line vote of 35-18 — only one Republican, Sen. Fran Millar of Dunwoody, joined the chamber’s Democrats in opposition to the bill. It now goes to the state House for consideration.
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