Anti-abortion advocates lobby Grand Rapids leaders on insurance coverage - MLive.com
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Although the city's human resources director said only abortions of "medical necessity" are covered by employee health insurance, anti-abortion advocates want the plan to include more specific language that prevents public funds from being spent on "elective abortions."
At least one elected official will take up the cause to evaluate what "medical necessity" means and whether the language could be more specific.
"Those are questions I'll be asking," First Ward City Commissioner Dave Shaffer said.
Rina Sala-Baker, a former City Commission candidate who lost for a second time at the polls last fall, spearheaded an effort to collect 1,600 signatures to bring the issue to the attention of Grand Rapids leaders. The signatures were delivered to City Commission tonight.
The signers want to know if the city has paid for abortions of pregnancies other than those that are the result of rape or incest, or those that endanger the mother's life. They also want the city to negotiate with employee labor unions to exclude "elective abortions" from coverage.
Mari Beth Jelks, the city's human resources director, said abortions and all other city-insured health operations are based on "medical necessity."
"There are no elective surgeries covered under the city's plan," she said. "For all surgeries, medical substantiation is required. The substantiation (for abortion) is one of a life-threatening situation."
Sala-Baker said she is "not completely" satisfied with that response, and she wants to make the language more restrictive.
"It's too vague," she said. "The standard is so loose. We want to make it more specific."
The discussion comes amid criticism of Mayor George Heartwell's speech last week when he blasted ultraconservative religious and political "forces of darkness" for opposing public funding for Planned Parenthood. Heartwell apologized for that comment tonight.
Still, some Planned Parenthood critics and anti-abortion advocates in Grand Rapids were smarting from the characterization tonight.
"To call the majority of your constituents 'forces of darkness' is inappropriate," Adrienne Urban said. "Obscuring policy (on city-funded abortion) is darkness. You're hiding things, it seems.
"Almost everybody in this room knows that ('medical necessity) is a farce."
Some residents argued that the city's Judeo-Christian majority requires commissioners to change its insurance coverage of abortions. Patricia Korte, president of Right to Life of Grand Rapids, suggested a policy rider - paid at the employee's expense - to cover abortions of "medical necessity" that are not life-threatening.
"We are a city of churches. We are a city of life. We are a 'cool' city," Korte said. "We're not going to be cool if we're a city of abortion mills."
Casey O'Neill, a resident on the city's West Side, said Grand Rapids leaders should re-evaluate insurance coverage to protect both women and tax money.
"I don't think it really is a matter of women's rights, a woman's right to choose," he said. "The issue is whether taxpayers are funding it."
Email Matt Vande Bunte, or follow him on Twitter.
16 May, 2012
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Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/05/anti-abortion_advocates_lobby.html
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