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  • 2017-08-11 (xsd:date)
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  • Did the Texas House of Representatives Pass a Law Requiring Women to Buy 'Rape Insurance'? (en)
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  • On 9 August 2017, the Groopspeak web site reported that the Texas House of Representatives had passed a bill that would force women to purchase rape insurance. The article contained excerpts from a Reuters report that quotes Democratic State Representative Chris Turner as using the phrase rape insurance: The bill in question is House Bill 214. It was passed by the Texas House on 9 July 2017, and a similar bill is currently before the state Senate. If it's passed there, it will be enacted on 1 December 2017. The bill would prohibit certain health insurance plans from covering abortions, but would allow women to purchase private supplementary insurance plans that would cover abortions. The bill applies to plans purchased through the Texas health benefit exchange that was set up by the Affordable Care Act, public employee health plans, and several other kinds of insurance. It allows an exception for medically urgent abortions (those deemed necessary to prevent a woman's death or serious physical injury) but does not allow an exception for the termination of a pregnancy that arises from rape or incest or abortions where a fetal abnormality has been diagnosed. There are also certain exceptions of a more technical nature. The Texas House Research Office (HRO) published an analysis of the bill: The absence of an exception for rape and incest has proven to be the most controversial element of the bill. The HRO analysis articulates opponents' rationale as follows: The Groopspeak article's headline is misleading -- women would not be required to purchase additional insurance. However, abortions would no longer be covered in health insurance plans that are part of the Texas Obamacare exchange, meaning that women would be forced to purchase supplementary plans if they wanted to be insured for abortions. Secondly, the phrase rape insurance has only been used by the bill's opponents as part of their opposition to the bill. While it's true that women would have to purchase additional insurance to cover abortion in the case of rape, they would also have to purchase additional insurance in order to cover the cost of an abortion for almost any reason, including incest or a fetal abnormality. A more comprehensive and neutral description of this supplementary insurance would therefore be abortion insurance, remembering that the bill still allows across-the-board coverage for terminations deemed medically urgent. (en)
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