While states like Illinois are moving in the direction of requiring abortion coverage for public employees, Wisconsin recently moved in a more hopeful direction. Republican Governor Scott Walker signed Assembly Bill 128 into law on April 3, which prohibits government insurance plans from covering abortions “except in cases of rape or incest or to preserve the life of the mother.”
According to Wisconsin Right to Life’s executive director Heather Weininger, her group “has been waiting 23 years for this major step to roll back taxpayer funding for abortion.”
National Right to Life Committee added that “Despite Wisconsin law prohibiting taxpayer subsidization of elective abortions, there have been no limits on abortion coverage for state employees’ health plans since 1995.” The law would also make it clearer about abortion coverage for state employees. So much for claims that the law was unnecessary.
READ: Religious groups sue New York over forced abortion insurance coverage
Regardless of who is insured, a majority of taxpayers do not want their hard earned taxpayer dollars covering abortions. Polling shows that this majority includes Americans who self-identity as pro-choice.
Pro-abortion state legislators, in opposing such legislation, used a common talking point regarding abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities. “Leave these decisions to the physicians and families who are suffering, and they are suffering when they have a wanted pregnancy that goes wrong,” said Rep. Chris Taylor, a Democrat from Madison.
This same argument was made several times by some Democrats in the U.S. Senate who opposed a federal 20-week abortion ban. The bill was prevented from passage, and so the United States remains one of only seven nations in the world which allow for elective abortions past 20 weeks — which even the Washington Post has recognized as “extreme.”
Fetal abnormalities in no way make a child less human, and arguing for abortion in such cases is discriminatory and ableist. Aside from this, doctors can be wrong. There are perinatal resources available to aid parents who receive such a diagnosis. And, as research shows, most women who abort late in term do so not because of a fetal abnormality, but for socioeconomic reasons — just like many women do earlier in pregnancy.
Because abnormalities may not be detected until later in pregnancy, a preborn child subjected to abortion at this stage will suffer a torturous procedure, typically a D&E, well after he or she can already feel pain. Dr. Anthony Levatino, who used to commit abortions, explains below:
Those who oppose the legislation show their truly extreme, pro-abortion colors, as the law doesn’t prohibit state employees from having an abortion — it only prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for it. “This law significantly protects taxpayers’ rights, since no one should be forced to subsidize the taking of innocent human life,” Weininger added.
