Statement by Allison Glass, State Director of Healthy and Free TN

"Healthy and Free TN is proud to join organizations and activists from across the country in celebrating the introduction of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act. This legislation would ensure that health plans provide coverage for abortion.

For too many years, politicians have imposed their personal beliefs on other people by pushing medically unnecessary requirements on clinics to make it harder to obtain an abortion or by withholding insurance coverage to make care unaffordable. It is time for that to change!

Whether a person chooses adoption, seeks abortion or is ready to become a parent they need to have access to affordable health services. We believe that both private and public insurance programs should provide coverage for the care that people need. Health plans should include a full range of pregnancy related care, including abortion.

We appreciate the leadership and support of Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) in ensuring that every Tennessean is able to make their own decision when it comes to pregnancy, parenting and abortion.

We can do more to eliminate barriers to health care and other services that people need to support them and their families. That means that we should make sure that people can access contraception to plan their families and seek abortion when they need to, as well as advancing bills that help people to become parents and raise their children - policies like the Pregnant Worker's Fairness Act and programs to provide paid family leave."

Actual Bill Details:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

(1) Affordable, comprehensive health insurance that includes coverage for a full range of pregnancy-related care, including abortion, is critical to the health of every woman.

(2) Neither a woman's income level nor her type of insurance should prevent her from having access to a full range of pregnancy-related care, including abortion services.

(3) No woman should have the decision to have, or not to have, an abortion made for her based on her ability or inability to afford the procedure.

(4) Since 1976, the Federal Government has withheld funds for abortion coverage in most circumstances. As a 2013 analysis by the Guttmacher Institute shows, this affects women of reproductive age in the United States who are insured through the Medicaid program, as well as women who receive insurance or care through other Federal health plans and programs.

(5) Moreover, 25 States also prohibit abortion coverage in private insurance plans within or beyond health insurance marketplaces under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to an analysis of State policies by the Guttmacher Institute.

(6) A report by the Center for Reproductive Rights details how restrictions on abortion coverage interfere with a woman's personal decisionmaking, with her health and well-being, and with her constitutionally protected right to a safe and legal medical procedure.

(7) Restrictions on abortion coverage have a disproportionate impact on low-income women, women of color, immigrant women, and young women, according to reports by both the Center for American Progress and the Guttmacher Institute. Also according to the reports, these women are already disadvantaged in their access to the resources, information, and services necessary to prevent an unintended pregnancy or to carry a healthy pregnancy to term.

SEC. 3. ABORTION COVERAGE AND CARE REGARDLESS OF INCOME OR SOURCE OF INSURANCE.

(1) ensure coverage for abortion care in public health insurance programs including Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children's Health Insurance Program;

(2) in its role as an employer or health plan sponsor, ensure coverage for abortion care for participants and beneficiaries; and

(3) in its role as a provider of health services, ensure abortion care is made available to individuals who are eligible to receive services in its own facilities or in facilities with which it contracts to provide medical care.

(b) Prohibiting Restrictions On Private Insurance Coverage Of Abortion Care.--

(1) FEDERAL RESTRICTIONS.--The Federal Government shall not prohibit, restrict, or otherwise inhibit insurance coverage of abortion care by State or local government or by private health plans.

(2) STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS.--State and local governments shall not prohibit, restrict, or otherwise inhibit insurance coverage of abortion care by private health plans.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

(1) the Federal Government, acting in its capacity as an insurer, employer, or health care provider, should serve as a model for the Nation to ensure coverage of abortion care; and

(2) moreover, restrictions on coverage of abortion care in the private insurance market must end.

SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY.

Source:

Healthy & Free Tennessee
Allison Glass, State Director

House Bill Link (H.R.2972)