Abortion rights activists vow to fight on in Michigan

LANSING, Mich. — A day after this state’s Legislature passed one of the nation’s most restrictive laws curbing insurance coverage of abortions, a small group of disheartened but die-hard activists stalked the Capitol’s halls determined to keep fighting.

Their gesture — visits to legislators’ offices with cards thanking them or scolding them depending on how they voted on Wednesday — was, they admitted, small and quiet. But the coalition of women’s groups who scratched together this contingent on an exceptionally frigid day viewed it as a way to show resilience and resolve in the face of a significant setback.

“It’s kind of our first step to say ‘We know where you people stand’ and ‘We’re still here,’” said Marie Rose, a 21-year-old junior at nearby Michigan State University and president of the school’s Students For Choice. “As far as the people who voted for this, they should prepare for a lot of anger and frustration.”

The state Senate voted 27-11 and the House voted 62-47 on Wednesday to require insurance companies in Michigan to offer abortion coverage only to customers who pay for a separate rider. The anti-abortion rights group Michigan Right To Life had collected more than 300,000 signatures to force the Legislature to either approve the measure or put it on the next statewide ballot for a public vote.

Abortion rights groups were pushing lawmakers to take a pass and put it on the ballot, but leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature brought it up on the second-to-last day of the 2013 session.

Laws brought to the Legislature via this type of petition cannot be vetoed by Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican who did veto the same measure in 2012. Similar laws were vetoed by two prior governors as well, one a Republican and one a Democrat. “This doesn’t limit abortion, it doesn’t say anything about the legality of abortion,” Right To Life Michigan spokeswoman Genevieve Marnon said. “It just speaks about who pays for it.”

Some 24 states have laws banning insurance sold on the federal exchange under the Affordable Care Act to include abortion coverage, but Michigan is now among just a few to require such riders for private insurers. Michigan’s law also provides no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.

“There are very few states that actually go in and interfere with the private marketplace,” said Meghan Hodge Groen, lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan. “In most states, there are exemptions if the woman’s health is an issue. This is a very extreme case of this variety of law.”

The rhetoric, as is often the case with this topic, was heated in recent weeks. Those opposing the law dubbed it rape insurance on grounds that women would need to have the rider just in case they were impregnated amid sexual assault, and anti-abortion forces argued that forcing everyone’s premiums to support coverage of abortion amounted to an insurance tax.

Testimony was equally charged, with Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer disclosing during an emotional speech that she had been raped 20 years ago. In addition, Rep. Colleen Lamonte, spoke of her miscarriage in the 12th week of a pregnancy and asserted that treatment might not have been covered had the law existed at the time.

Marnon said such concerns are distortions, noting that Medicaid has not covered abortions for 25 years but still covers treatments related to miscarriages. Groen countered that the new law is unclear on that and other fronts.

And while Marnon insisted women could get covered if they pay for it, Shelli Weisberg, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the insurance industry is unlikely to even offer such riders because “there is no market for it. There’s no risk pool. Insurance is about spreading the risk around.”

While activists were steamed, many near the Capitol were unaware, indifferent or conflicted. 

Barbara Thomas, a 29-year-old coffee barista in East Lansing, Mich., said a friend is pregnant, unmarried and considering an abortion, "because a child would be inconvenient." Thomas said she's long favored abortion rights, but this case makes her uncomfortable.

"It's her choice, and I support that, but I don't think I should have to pay for it," Thomas said. "If it's a rape or something traumatic, then yes, I think it should be covered by insurance just like if I get shot. It's these gray areas where I just don't know."

Some saw the move as part of a broader trend of Michigan becoming more conservative. Daniel Montague, a 30-year-old construction worker from Okemos, Mich., said he and his girlfriend are considering moving to Chicago once she finishes graduate school in part because of laws like these. The abortion measure was one of several laws passed by the Legislature since it was captured by the GOP in the 2010 Tea Party wave that makes them question their loyalty to their home state of Michigan.

"It's not just abortion, it's how they're cracking down on union rights, their anti-gay stuff, all of it," said Montague, who was born in Grand Rapids, Mich. "This used to be a middle-of-the-road place. It's not anymore."

Weisberg and others view the Michigan law as another piece of an orchestrated effort around the U.S. to limit access to abortion services. In Texas and Virginia, for instance, the legislatures approved a measure altering the building code for abortion clinics in ways that made it too expensive for existing facilities to comply. Other measures bar abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy or require consent from parents or spouses.

“It’s beautifully orchestrated, and they spend a long time orchestrating it,” Weisberg said. “Those of us who support women’s access to the health care have been at a loss as to how to organize to fight against it. People on my side take this right for granted. We’re watching them legislatively take huge chinks out of the law. It’s a very difficult thing to organize around it, because people who can afford this kind of health care always get it.”

Indeed, the disorienting nature of Wednesday’s defeat has left activists unsure how to move forward. To repeal the measure in the Legislature, they would have to unseat dozens of Republican state lawmakers, most from comfortable conservative districts. Otherwise, pro-abortion rights groups could gather about 161,000 signatures to put it to a public vote.

Despite polling that shows large majorities of Michigan voters would support repeal, abortion rights activists nonetheless offered half-hearted endorsements of such an approach.

“It’s not easy,” said Karen Teegarden, national president of the pro-choice group Unite Women and a Michigan resident. “Even when the majority oppose something, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll show up for it.”

Marnon said she was unconcerned about that prospect.

“If they want to do a people’s referendum, that’s their right,” she said. “Do I think they will get the petition signatures they need? Hard to say. We had 8,000 volunteers. I don’t think they have the same grassroots organization.”

On Thursday, those on the losing side were attempting to recover from the defeat. About 20 people gathered in Groen’s Lansing office to pick up the cards and fan out on the Capitol dropping them off. Each was tailored to legislators, with those going to lawmakers who voted for the insurance ban receiving a scolding greeting signed by some of their constituents.

After the card drop-off, six of the women sat in the gallery of the House in bright pink shirts to observe the session even though lawmakers were not addressing any abortion issues.

“It would have been worth more if I had been here when the vote happened,” said Rose, who coincidentally was finishing a final paper on Michigan abortion law due hours after the measure was being considered. “But at least all the lawmakers can see we’re still here, we’re still standing, we’ll keep fighting.”