Rape Insurance in Michigan

[Miles]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/1...0020131212

(Reuters) - The Michigan legislature on Wednesday approved a proposal that would make it the ninth state to prohibit insurance companies from offering abortions unless women pay a fee in addition to the premium.

The proposal, which was brought before the legislature as an initiative petition organized by Right to Life of Michigan, an anti-abortion group, was approved in the House and Senate, both of which have Republican majorities.

State senators voted 27-11 and representatives 62-47 to make the "Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act" proposal law. Under Michigan's constitution, such voter initiatives become law 90 days after the current session ends, without the need for Governor Rick Snyder's signature.

Snyder, a Republican who identifies himself as pro-life, had vetoed a similar measure lawmakers approved less than a year ago. Snyder said in a letter to constituents the bill went too far because it treated situations involving rape and incest as elective abortions, and interfered with the private insurance market.

"Abortion is not true health care and people who object will not have to contribute their own tax dollars or insurance premiums for elective abortions," Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said in a statement.

The Michigan petition is one of a series of state initiatives in recent years that attempt to limit abortions, including banning the procedure after 20 weeks and enacting new restrictions on abortion providers. Eight other states have similar abortion insurance laws, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research group.

The Michigan initiative drew the ire of Democratic state lawmakers. Michigan Democrats argued that the initiative provided no exceptions for rape or incest and the legislature should have let the matter go before voters in November 2014.

"Legislative Republicans are once again catering to the whims of special interest groups, and the citizens suffer," state Representative Vicki Barnett, a Democrat, said in a statement. "Now, Michigan women need to plan ahead for 'rape insurance' in case the absolute worst happens."

Democratic state Senate leaders called for its immediate repeal.

The petitioners submitted about 316,000 signatures, well above the 258,088 needed to put the initiative before the legislature. The signatures submitted represented about 3 percent of Michigan's population of 9.9 million.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis and Mary Wisniewski in Chicago; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Can we please...

"Abortion is not true health care and people who object will not have to contribute their own tax dollars or insurance premiums for elective abortions," Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said in a statement.

...abort the living shit out of these slimeball lizardprick chumfucks?

[partis]

Whats going on ?

[MisterTinkles]

Morons.

They need to teach abstinence and self control in schools, instead of handing out condoms.
They also need to make it where you require a certified government issued license to be able to have kids in the first place.

And it does NOT matter what is in an insurance plan or not, your tax dollars are still being misused and abused and wasted. Might as well use them for some kind of benefit, instead of the insurance companies getting fatter and more powerful off that money.

[MisterTinkles]

Whats going on ?

Some douchebags keep sticking their noses into peoples business.
They think THEY can tell everybody else what to do, but when WE tell them what to do, they throw temper tantrums and scream and yell like some spoiled 3 year old.

[SilverFrost]

Women still don't have rights to their OWN bodies...

[Arkansota]

I definitely think that abortions because of rape should be covered.

[Chase]

They need to teach abstinence and self control in schools, instead of handing out condoms.
They also need to make it where you require a certified government issued license to be able to have kids in the first place.

Actually, no.
Studies have conflicted with your surmise. Education on safe sex and birth control is not only a human right but also proven to yield results lowering early pregnancies and STDs.
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http://advocatesforyouth.org/publications/409



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[Pix]

They need to teach abstinence and self control in schools, instead of handing out condoms.

That's how most schools run. Schools that "hand out condoms" (that is high schools in which kids can ask for them at the nurses station) are extremely rare and though the list of schools wisely rejecting abstinence-only education despite that it gets them more federal funding is growing they're still a minority last I heard, but states with abstinence-only are also the ones with the most teen pregnancy, STD, etc (which then leads to adults on welfare). The Christian Right likes to bear false witness and say otherwise, however.

Let me guess, you know 20 schools in Texas that hand out condoms and tell them to have fun.

[Pix]

Actually, no.
Studies have conflicted with your surmise. Education on safe sex and birth control is not only a human right but also proven to yield results lowering early pregnancies and STDs.
.......................................

http://advocatesforyouth.org/publications/409



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I somehow missed this one...ah well, thought I'd share this to back that, too, as Alyona made me laugh when she went into "teacher mode"

[Shiner]

Actually, no.
Studies have conflicted with your surmise. Education on safe sex and birth control is not only a human right but also proven to yield results lowering early pregnancies and STDs.
.......................................

http://advocatesforyouth.org/publications/409



................................

This.

Teaching abstinence is a silly idea, even our Christian high-schools here don't do that because they know especially teenagers are going to fool around. The best you can do is teach them how to be safe.

Sadly there was a bit of a trend of failing at sex ed where they were putting the importance of condoms on preventing unwanted pregnancy, not on reducing the risks of STD's