EDITORIAL

Outrageous intrusion

Mich. may make it illegal to sell health insurance policies covering abortion in cases of incest, rape

12/10/2013

There is perhaps no more difficult and intensely personal and private a decision than abortion. Studies show that many people who are normally opposed to the procedure would make an exception in cases of rape or incest, or where the mother’s life is at risk, or a fetus is grossly deformed.

Incredibly, Michigan lawmakers may be about to make it illegal to sell health insurance policies that would cover these difficult situations. They would require women to buy a rider before they even know they might seek an abortion. And they would not be allowed to purchase it after a pregnancy began, unless it were a matter of life and death.

This policy is too extreme for Gov. Rick Snyder, a social conservative. When lawmakers included it in a law passed last year, the governor vetoed it.

What is even worse about this latest attempt is that lawmakers are pursuing it to prevent voters from deciding. Right to Life of Michigan has collected enough petition signatures to place this bad idea on the ballot next November.

But lawmakers who want the anti-abortion rights lobby’s financial support want to enact it now. This time, thanks to the ballot initiative and a quirk of state law, the governor could not veto it.

The U.S. Constitution has been inter-preted to mean that nobody should have the right to tell a woman what she must do in such difficult circumstances. Nor should some — mostly male — lawmakers deny her the right to buy insurance that could save her life.

Michigan voters should make themselves heard on this issue in the office of House Speaker Jase Bolger — as well as to their own lawmakers — before another freedom is lost.