A new bill would ban most private insurance coverage for abortions. But opponents say it would also ban effective methods of birth control.
One fifth of the representatives in the House have signed on to sponsored by Republican John Becker that would prohibit most insurance companies from offering coverage for abortion services.
鈥淭he intent is to save lives and reduce the cost of employers and employees health care insurance," Becker says.
The bill would ban nontherapeutic abortions that include "drugs or devices used to prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum.鈥�
And Becker says the bill also speaks to coverage of ectopic or tubal pregnancies where the fertilized egg attaches outside of the womb.
鈥淧art of that treatment would be removing that embryo from the fallopian tube and reinserting it in the uterus so that is defined as not an abortion under this bill," Becker explains.
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 exist in the realm of treatment for ectopic pregnancy. You can鈥檛 just re-implant. It鈥檚 not a medical thing," says Jaime Miracle, deputy director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.
She says, under this bill, women would have to wait until their very lives were in danger to get an abortion in the case of an ectopic pregnancy.
鈥淭his bill will have grave impacts on Ohio鈥檚 infant and maternal mortality rate," Miracle says.
And she says that鈥檚 not all. She says it will ban insurance from covering popular methods of birth control.
鈥淏irth control pills, IUD鈥檚 and other methods of birth control like that 鈥� the bill states that any birth control that could act to stop a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus is considered an abortion under this bill," Miracle says.
Becker insists his bill does not target birth control.
鈥淲hen you get into the contraception and abortifacients, that鈥檚 clearly not my area of expertise but I suppose, if it were true that what we typically known as the pill would be classified as an abortifacient, then I would imagine the drug manufacturers would reformulate it so it鈥檚 no longer an abortifacient and is strictly a contraceptive," Becker says.
This bill just had its first hearing in committee. If it goes further, supporters, opponents and medical professionals will testify for or against it.
Less than a month ago, Ohio lawmakers passed and Gov. Mike DeWine signed a law that bans abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy - at the point a fetal heartbeat can be detected. If this legislation goes through as written, it would go even further.
