So what happened in Michigan?

Late on December 11^th, Michigan’s legislature passes a measure to ban all insurance coverage for abortion even in private health plans. So women who want abortion coverage have to purchase a supplemental rider in case of what is defended as unplanned and unwanted pregnancy…because state sponsored extortion of women amiright?

Now, I’ve heard it called “rape insurance” but Jessica Valenti makes a compelling point not to call this rider “rape insurance.” The term comes because there is no exception for women who are survivors of rape and incest, and there is something rape cultury and sinister in forcing victims of such violence to pay out of pocket for the crimes of the perpetrators. Below you’ll see a video of State Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, who shares her story of sexual assault and how this law would have impacted her. However, as Valenti notes, the term “rape insurance” dismisses the needs of women and other persons who are not seeking an abortion due to sexual abuse.

By calling it “rape insurance” we’re creating a binary (and you know how I feel about binaries) of “good” and “bad” abortions. This is the kind of language we can’t give to the anti-choice community. We’ll end up with discussions of the deserving and the undeserving…the US has done this before with poverty relief programs. The current stat is one in three women have abortions, and those choices are not any of our concern, and it should have no impact on whether the procedure is affordable.

This law much like the ultrasound laws that require women to pay for unnecessary procedures to appease the anti-choice zealots, costs women who might not be able to foot the bill for these procedures without coverage from their insurance.