OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state lawmakers considered proposed legislation Thursday that will require most health insurers offering maternity care to also cover elective abortions.
In a public hearing, the state House's Health Care and Wellness Committee heard arguments from both sides of the abortion debate on Washington state House Bill 2330.
Supporters said the bill will preserve current abortion coverage once federal health insurance rules come into effect under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2014.
"This is to make sure that Washington women don't wake up in 2014 and discover what they had on December 31, 2013, is gone," said Elaine Rose, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest. "It's our way of preserving Washington state's history and values."
Opponents, badly outnumbered on a day when bad road conditions prevented many from making the trip to the Capitol, said the bill would force insurers and business owners to offer abortion coverage even if they oppose it on moral grounds.
"Abortion is an elective procedure," said John Geis, director of governmental affairs for the Family Policy Institute, Washington. "It's not necessary for health care, to make a person well or whole."
Most individual and small group health care plans will face a federal requirement to provide maternity coverage starting in 2014.
