As our state proceeds with implementation of health care reform under the Affordable Care Act, it’s crucial that policymakers protect women’s access to comprehensive health care services.
In an attempt to undermine health care reform, politicians in Congress inserted a provision to roll back reproductive health care protections and allow states to ban abortion coverage in plans sold on state exchanges. But the decision to end a pregnancy should be left up to a woman, her family and her faith – not the government.
Washington has historically and repeatedly affirmed this belief, from the time we legalized abortion in 1970 – three years before Roe v. Wade – through our support for fair access to abortion and maternity care services for low-income people in more recent years.
Since everyone will have insurance starting in 2014, we can only maintain our state value on access to abortion services by making sure that insurance plans cover abortion.
While our state’s existing law guarantees that any woman who receives public funding to help pay for her insurance will also get her abortion coverage subsidized, it does not guarantee that abortion coverage will be available to purchase in the first place.
If we don’t pass legislation this year to fix that problem, our state’s commitment to pro-choice values will be threatened because of decisions made at the federal level.
Essentially, we need to ensure that Washington’s health care system remains fair and equitable, and the Reproductive Parity Act recently introduced by state Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle, and state Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, will expand access to basic reproductive health care for all women in our state, both inside and outside of the health insurance exchange.
All health insurance policies sold in Washington should cover abortion just as they do prenatal care. It’s unjust to have a woman’s pregnancy decisions influenced by whether her plan will pay for an abortion or not, as insurers already have to cover maternity care.
We need to pass state legislation this year to maintain the access Washington women currently have to abortion, and prevent the federal government from rolling back reproductive health access and impairing Washington values.
Elaine Taylor Rose is the CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest (Alaska, Idaho and Washington).
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