The New York Times editorial page weighs in on Michigan's anti-abortion rights legislation that is sitting on Gov. Snyder's desk, awaiting his signature or veto:
Despite clear public support for women’s reproductive rights, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature used the just-ended lame-duck session to ram through harmful measures eliminating insurance coverage of abortions and imposing medically unnecessary regulations on providers of safe and legal abortion care.
The state’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, can show real leadership and demonstrate respect for women in his state by refusing to sign these ideologically driven bills into law.
The first measure would bar insurance coverage for abortion services without the purchase of an additional “rider” at added expense. The restriction would extend to both plans purchased through the health insurance exchanges created by the federal health care reform law and to private insurance plans sold outside the exchanges.
There is a single exception limited to life endangerment, but none for a woman’s health or cases of incest or rape — an omission that shows Republican lawmakers learned nothing from the public’s rejection of reprehensible attitudes toward sexual assault that led to the defeat of Republican Senate candidates in other states in November.
