The Republican-dominated Michigan state legislature pushed through a bill on Wednesday requiring women to purchase separate insurance policies if they want to have an abortion, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“I don’t think elective abortion should be a part of insurance,” state Rep. Nancy Jenkins (R) told the Free Press. “This doesn’t affect access to abortion. It will still be legal when this law takes effect. Who should be required to pay? Not Michigan taxpayers.”
However, the law, which takes effect in early 2014, will also ban women from purchasing the policy after becoming pregnant under any circumstances, including rape and incest, causing opponents to refer to it as a policy on “rape insurance.”
The bill passed by a 27-11 margin in the Senate, and a 62-47 vote in the House, mostly along party lines. According to the Associated Press, state Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D) said during the debate that she was raped 20 years ago.
“Thank God it didn’t result in a pregnancy because I can’t imagine going through what I went through and then having to consider what to do about an unwanted pregnancy from an attacker,” Whitmer was quoted as saying. “If this were law then and I had become pregnant, I would not be able to have coverage because of this. How extreme, how extreme does this measure need to be?”
Supporters of the law cited a petition drive by the anti-abortion group Right To Life that gathered 315,477 signatures — covering about 4 percent of the state’s population — as a response to Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) vetoing a similar bill in 2012 as a reason to avoid a statewide referendum on this year’s bill, saying residents in each of the state’s 83 counties signed the petition.
I guess being raped once in Michigan is simply not sufficient.
They would rather you be raped and be forced to give birth to your attacker's child, or purchase extra rape insurance so that when you get raped you can relax and take solace in the fact that the extra money you have spent each month means that you don't have to spend the next eighteen to twenty years raising the child that was gifted to you by God through brutality.
And the War on Women continues on.
Fuckers.
ReplyDeleteSomething OT to hopefully lift our mood after reading the above:
ReplyDeletehttp://wonkette.com/536444/help-us-feel-all-grifty-this-christmas-with-this-gorgeous-sarah-palin-gold-coin
A Sarah Palin gold coin? Hahahahahaha
It's almost as if April Fools Day and Friday the 13th found a means to occur on the same day. See, this'll teach ya no matter how old we get to stop goin' around saying "I've seen it all..."
DeleteSo I guess that the Michigan Repubs have never thought this through .
ReplyDeleteDoes this new law mean that if you have a new baby girl, that you ought to be thinking ahead and get rape insurance for her?
What about incest insurance?
How about septicemia or eclampsia insurance, so if you are dying of a terminal infection in the hospital while pregnant, you can have a termination without incurring huge costs out of pocket?
This year, a 30 year old woman of Hindu faith was dying in a hospital in Ireland.
She had the misfortune to go to a Catholic hospital and beg for mercy. She was screaming in agony for 3 days that someone save her life, and abort the dying fetus in her uterus.
She and her husband explained that they were of another faith, but that of course did not matter to anyone
The good Catholic doctors refused to give her an abortion to save her life, so they got what they wanted, and Savita died in the hospital in great pain, and with much suffering.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/savita-halappanavar-report-ireland-abortion_n_3434769.html
That they let his beautiful young woman DIE IN HOSPITAL just speaks volumes about their viciously prejudiced attitude.
"Rep. Nancy Jenkins (R) told the Free Press. “This doesn’t affect access to abortion. It will still be legal when this law takes effect. Who should be required to pay? Not Michigan taxpayers.”
ReplyDeleteI have seen this argument about taxpayers several times from the teabaggers and republicans, the truth is it requires women to purchase a rider from PRIVATE insurance. It is already illegal for medicaid to pay for abortions. As usual they lie and women pay. They also pushed this through the legislature really fast, I read they voted on it around 5pm (who says the republicans don't do any work ha ha).
The insurance companies should be thrilled, more money for them !!!
Next on the republican agenda:burkas
The Detroit Free Press should publish the number of women in Michigan who now must plan on being raped by men in Michigan. (Hint -ALL of them.)
ReplyDeleteSays a lot about Michigan men, doesn't it.
Hells bells! This is what people get when idiots are voted in!
ReplyDeleteSo if you're a ugly chick you don't have to buy rape ins? If you wear a burqka you don't have to buy it?
Bullshit. Abortion is the law of the land! Fuck these R's and Fuck them.
Take the Plan B pill!
What a bunch of assholes!
This "law" will be challenged...The R's bitch about HC "mandate" but want women to get "Rape ins"?
The whole world has gone insane! Abortion is the law. Any woman in the US has the right to have access to it.
Fuck these cons!
Watch ALEC Snyder run as a 'moderate' because, gee ladies, he DID veto this one first. Yeah, and when he did, the petition folsk were all ready to jump in and get those signatures, weren't they? This is sick. Just sick. No puboic money ever paid for an abortion. And, dear Ms. Jenkins, I don;t want to pay for your husband's Viagra, but I'm not running around with petitions so he has to buy "boner insurance." I am so disgusted with the GOP I could spit. Save Camp was in town making jokes about 'shovelling that global warming" on Monday. Haha. Then he told the assembled GOP donors the lies about the ACA. Yes, Michigan is headed back to slavery...the next ALEC agenda item is no doubt stripping women of the vote.
ReplyDeleteI am now ashamed to be from Michigan. These right-wing extremist hooligans are using my home state as a testing ground for non-democratic representation. When 4% of the state's population can impose their will on the other 96%, there is something seriously wrong. My brother, who still lives there, says that Snyder's opponent would have been worse. I don't see how that could even be possible.
ReplyDeleteI am too. This used to be a truly progressive state but it is now largely owned by the far right. We have to vote the GOP varmints out of Lansing and out of Washington.
DeleteBeaglemom
This is more than an outrage. What no one is telling is that currently there is NO such thing as rape insurance. So women who badly need an abortion for any reason will be left with massive medical bills because of this vile and possibly illegal law. I can't imagine any reputable Insurance co. will suddenly develop rape insurance. They already cover it.
ReplyDeleteTime to change the state motto to "Mississippi With Snow."
ReplyDeleteRich women can and always have been able to have an abortion, only poor women who they want in poverty, and controlled . They want slaves of women and children. They will have plenty of children for their child porn as we seen in Sen Alexander's aid, How many other scandals have there been with page's and adultery involved, and they still spout this crap out. They really have not a Christian thought in their minds but screwing over the American people. We need to have laws against these people and their bad deeds
ReplyDeleteI believe that signing an anti-abortion petition should automatically enlist the person signing as a NICU nurse for ONE YEAR.
ReplyDeleteONE full YEAR of administering care to those unfortunate babies that should have been aborted, but instead have to live a few weeks of screaming agony before "the angels take them to Heaven."
Because these ignorant idiots signed a petition without having to face ANY consequences.
Further, signing any anti-abortion petition should also constitute automatic enrollment in a special TAX to cover medical expenses of pregnant women that WILL SUFFER from carrying their non-viable fetus to term.
Because these idiots don't give a shit how their callous misunderstanding of the realities of some situations and the complexities involved in some pregnancies rise above their simple-minded, fairy-tale, Fox News view of the way they WISH things were.
Well obviously, all women have to do is not get raped. Duh!
ReplyDeleteI sure hope you are joking, Anon at 8:08 am. All women are vulnerable to rape. It's not a laughing matter. It is a crime.
DeleteBeaglemom
It truly is outrageous. If anything, there should be a mandatory insurance policy required of all men, because they are the perpetrators of rape. Let's blame the criminal and not the victim!
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
There should now commence a mass exodus of women with functioning brains from Michigan. They should stay away en masse until this travesty that I refuse to call a "law" is repealed. Seriously female Michiganders, use the Lysistrata approach. Move out, or if you can't move out, abstain, until this is repealed.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable and outrageous. More Blame the victim nonsense. If the law were to exist then it should be the perpetrators of acts of rape who should get the insurance. A law mandating men to get rape insurance should be enacted. Its unbelievable that the target for advise, suggestions, the law is NEVER men who need to understand rape is wrong, but always women who are the victims of rapists. My God.
ReplyDeleteSo they believe taxpayers should not pay for abortions?
ReplyDeleteWell, I believe I should not pay for smoker's lung disease. Or obesity related diseases. Or anything that I, myself, would be offended by. Point being, only women's healthcare needs are being mangled this way, not everyone's.
One of the most insane move by the Republican's and the Tea Party idiots. You would think women would be up in arms over things like this, but unless I missing something I don't hear much anger over this and actions like it. Maybe they will speak out by their votes, but if they want to prevent similar legislation from taking place they should be letting the politicians know in no uncertain terms they will not vote for those who support this type of legislation, or for the party who support this. Maybe then the Republican's and the Tea Party members will reverse their war on women. I also ask if the majority of women really care enough about this to stand up and say, 'no more of this nonsense'.
ReplyDeleteMaybe women will have to stand their ground against rape! Since no one has to have gun insurance , we can claim, just like George Zimmerman we were afraid for our lives. How will they like that?
ReplyDeleteBoycott Michigan. I'd pay into a fund to help all sane women move to the state of their choice. Legalizing Violence Against Women isn't the answer. What punishment do the fathers get? (I use the term "Fathers" because there's a segment of females who accuse men they have sex with regularly of being "Rapists" when they become pregnant . (E.G. The Palin Doctrine).
ReplyDelete