Detroit Free Press Nancy Kaffer column

March 17--Thursday was a particularly aggravating day for women in Michigan -- it was the day something dubbed "rape insurance" became the law of the land.

This is a particularly noxious provision, enacted in a particularly noxious way, that bars public or private insurers from covering abortions unless the insured person purchases a special rider. There's no exception for rape, incest, or the health of the mother, though Right To Life, the group behind the law, did concede that saving the actual life of a pregnant woman should entitle her to claim coverage for a medically necessary termination.

The law was the product of a petition, signed by just 4.2% of Michigan voters, and brought to the state Legislature. The GOP majority approved it, along with three Democrats: state Sen. Tupac Hunter of Detroit, state representatives Terry Brown of Pigeon and Charles Bruner of Bay City, plus Rep. John Olumba, a Detroit independent.

The Legislature could have put the measure on the ballot, but opted not to. Why? My guess is that they knew Michigan voters wouldn't go for it -- and Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a similar measure that landed on his desk in 2012.

For state Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, it feels like moving backward.

"It's surprising to have to be fighting the fights that we're fighting," she said.

Whitmer had planned to deliver a blistering speech on the Senate floor Thursday, the day the rape insurance law took effect. The state Constitution gives senators the right to make such statements. But on Thursday, the Senate adjourned without allowing statements, something Whitmer says she can recall happening only rarely during her 14 years in Lansing.

But her speech started circulating online Thursday night, after it was posted on the Daily Kos website.

Whitmer recounts that several of her Senate colleagues approached her after the vote, to share personal stories. One lawmaker envied Whitmer's courage in voting the way that she did.

For these folks, Whitmer doesn't have much consolation.

"You know who you are. I don't need to name any names here today. But if you came to me that day seeking absolution for what you did, I'm here to tell you that on behalf of the millions of women and young girls you belittled that day and whose lives you've hurt as a result, the answer is no."

Here's the thing: No one wants to have an abortion. But sometimes it's necessary. To suggest otherwise is to say that a victim of rape should be forced to carry the child of her attacker (and let's note that 31 states allow rapists to sue for parental rights). Or that a woman pregnant with a wanted, loved, heartbreakingly nonviable but technically living child should be forced to carry that fetus to term, to live every day with a growing belly and a dying heart.

Michigan's new rape insurance law doesn't prevent women from having abortions. But it does complicate matters.

A typical first trimester abortion in Michigan costs about $500. Second- and third-trimester abortions, which may require hospitalization, can cost as much as $10,000. For some women, these costs will be prohibitive.

This isn't about public money. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has barred the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions. This is about private employers and private insurers. Michigan'sGOP Legislature, whose members routinely rail against the Affordable Care Act's insurance mandate, have forced the same kind of intrusion into the lives of women and girls.

"It's demoralizing to watch the process that everyone talks about so subverted. That they don't want government in their personal lives, that they respect our right to debate and in hearing what the people had to say," Whitmer said. "And on this one there was no debate, no opportunity for the public to weigh in. They didn't listen to anyone other than one special interest group."

Whitmer said her sense of her colleagues' confessions was that they wanted her to see it from their points of view -- to understand that they'd had to make a hard choice between doing the right thing, and not running afoul of a powerful special interest group.

It's the kind of compromise that's understandable only if the health of women and girls is an acceptable cost.

Contact Nancy Kaffer: [email protected].

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