Texas on verge of excluding abortion from health plans

The Republican-controlled Texas Senate backed a plan Saturday night to restrict insurance coverage for abortions, over the objections of opponents who expressed concern it could force some women to make heart-wrenching choices because no exceptions will be made in cases of rape and incest.

The 20-10 party-line vote for preliminary approval requires women to purchase extra insurance to cover abortions except amid medical emergencies. A final vote Sunday will see the measure clear the chamber, meaning it’s now on a fast track to Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.

State lawmakers debated other bills limiting insurance coverage for abortion during Texas’ regular legislative session, which ended in May, but Abbott called a special session and revived the issue.

Ten states already have laws restricting insurance coverage of abortion in all private insurance plans: Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah. All make exceptions if the mother’s life is endangered; only Indiana and Utah also make exceptions for rape and incest.

The measure’s House sponsor, Republican Rep. John Smithee, said it applies only to “elective” abortions and promotes “economic freedom” by not forcing Texas policyholders who object to abortion to “subsidize” insurance coverage for women undergoing the procedure.

Outnumbered Democrats dismissed the bill as purely political, arguing that insurance companies already cover only medically necessary abortions.

They also said the law will require women to purchase insurance plans that insurers won’t actually offer because too few women will buy them, not knowing in advance that they will be undergoing abortions.

Rep. Chris Turner, head of the House Democratic Caucus, said the bill would effectively require women to buy “rape insurance.”

Texas approved some of the nation’s strictest limits on abortion in 2013, but those were mostly struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer. Still, abortion clinics around the state have closed, and the number of abortions performed in the country’s second-largest state has fallen from more than 82,000 in 2006 to around 54,300 in 2015.

A Guttmacher Institute analysis in March said about 60 percent of privately insured abortion patients pay out of pocket, because their policy doesn’t cover the procedure or because deductibles are high.