In governor’s race, abortion dispute flares among Democrats

June 14--An abortion-rights rift among pro-choice Democrats flared Wednesday as governor candidate Matt Brown attacked Gov. Gina Raimondo for providing "pro-life" health-insurance plans on Rhode Island's Obamacare exchange and touted endorsements from women's rights leaders, including Gloria Steinem.

Hoping to unseat Raimondo in the September Democratic primary, Brown released a letter endorsing him and criticizing Raimondo signed by more than 40 reproductive health-care advocates, including Steinem; Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL, and Barbara Roberts, a professor at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School and former staff physician at Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island.

"Alarmingly, Rhode Island's Democratic Governor has joined the attack on reproductive freedom," the Brown endorsement letter said. "The Affordable Care Act requires each state exchange to include at least one plan that doesn't cover abortion. Governor Raimondo forced insurers in Rhode Island to offer nine plans that restricted abortion coverage."

Why endorse a man over Rhode Island's first female governor?

"Feminism is not about electing one woman, but making life more fair for all women, so it's important to say that the restrictions she signed deny reproductive choice to thousands of women in Rhode Island," Gloria Steinem wrote the Journal in an email from her office.

The letter does not mean Brown, challenging Raimondo from the progressive left, has captured Rhode Island's pro-choice community.

Michelman was president of NARAL from 1985 to 2004, but the organization itself has not endorsed anyone in the Rhode Island governor's race yet.

The Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women endorsed Raimondo last month.

The core of Brown's attack and unease in some corners of the pro-choice camp with Raimondo stems from the fight over offering health-insurance plans that don't cover abortions on HealthSource RI, the state's public health-insurance exchange.

In 2015, facing a lawsuit from a Rhode Island man who objected to HealthSource's lack of plans without abortion coverage, the exchange began offering a plan with abortion coverage limited to only extreme circumstances such as rape or incest.

When the state later required each insurer to offer limited abortion plans at the "bronze," "silver" and "gold" levels, the lawsuit, backed by a Christian legal group, was dismissed.

Later, this arrangement was enshrined in the state budget, including language that allowed employers to offer health-insurance plans to workers that didn't cover abortion. It was hailed by pro-life groups and brought hand-wringing from the abortion-rights community and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island.

"HealthSource RI offers 18 plans in the individual market, 12 of which cover abortion services and six of which do not except in very limited circumstances," wrote HealthSource spokeswoman Kyrie Perry in an email about the current breakdown of plans on the exchange. "According to the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2016, 31 states have no plans that cover abortion on their marketplaces. Rhode Island is one of 19 states plus [Washington, D.C.] that offer at least one marketplace plan that includes coverage for abortion."

Asked to clarify what Brown, if elected, would do differently than Raimondo, Brown campaign spokesman Ron Knox said he would push for legislation to scale back anti-abortion plans to the single plan required by federal law.

Raimondo spokeswoman Emily Samsel issued the following statement:

"Governor Raimondo stood up to the Trump administration's attempts roll back Roe v. Wade and called on the Rhode Island General Assembly to codify abortion rights into state law.

"For Matt Brown to suggest that Rhode Island's first female governor has been anything other than a champion for women's health care is laughable."

-- panderson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

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