Ohio law would bar subsidized health plans from covering abortions

Ohio Republican lawmakers are pushing bills that would prohibit health plans that are subsidized with taxpayer money from covering abortions.

The law would apply to health plans offered in the insurance “exchanges” that were created as part of the federal health reform law. The exchanges would help people who don’t have access to employer-based health insurance obtain coverage, and are scheduled to take effect in 2014. The exchanges would be set up and administered by states, but their startup would be funded by the federal government.

The federal reform law contains language that allows states to “opt out” of abortion coverage for health plans sold through the exchanges. The proposed Ohio law would do just that.

“This is basically to continue not allowing taxpayer dollars to fund and pay for abortions,” Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cates is a co-sponsor of the Senate bill. Identical bills were introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate.

Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, called the proposal “ludicrous.” She said any lawmaker who minimizes the bill’s impact on legal abortions is lying.

Tennessee recently enacted a similar law and one has been proposed in Missouri.

Cates acknowledged that the bills were unlikely to come to a vote before a summer legislative recess next month. The bill is likely to be better received in the Republican-controlled Senate than the Democrat-controlled House.