Dems Continue Fight to Ensure Access to Health Care Coverage with ‘Abortion Rider’ Law

State Reps. Sarah Roberts (D-St. Clair Shores), Marcia Hovey-Wright (D-Muskegon) and Gretchen Driskell (D-Saline) are introducing legislation aimed at helping Michigan women hurt by the disastrous “abortion rider” legislation passed in 2013. That law requires women to purchase extra insurance to cover abortion, even when one is medically necessary to preserve a woman’s health, when a fetus suffers a genetic abnormality or a woman becomes pregnant following a rape or incest. The new bills being introduced would exempt those three situations from the abortion rider law.
Rep. Robert’s bill would allow a woman to use health insurance to cover an abortion when medical tests reveal the fetus suffers from a genetic abnormality. Rep. Hovey-Wright’s law would do the same for women whose doctors recommend terminating a pregnancy in order to preserve her health, while Driskell’s bill would extend that exemption to women who become pregnant following rape or incest. Currently, abortions performed to save a woman’s life are the only exception to the abortion rider law.