Tuesday September 14, 2010
Michigan County Panel Votes to Nix Employee Abortion Coverage
By Kathleen Gilbert
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, September 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of a county panel in Michigan have voted unanimously to remove abortion coverage from county employees’ health insurance, according to local news reports.
The Grand Rapids Press reported Tuesday that Kent County’s Legislative and Human Resources Committee agreed in a 9-0 vote to seek an end to the benefit in future employee contracts, and to request voluntary surrender of the benefit by the 13 labor unions in the county.
Pam Sherstad, a spokeswoman for Right to Life of Michigan (RLM), told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) Tuesday that her group was “very excited” at the committee’s decision.
Although given late notice, said Sherstad, pro-lifers were allowed to attend the meeting Tuesday morning “to give testimony about how they do not want their tax dollars being used for health programs that include abortion, that abortion is not health care.” RLM chairman Paul Miller, a Kent County resident, was among those who spoke to the committee.
Sherstad said she expects there “will be some opposition” to the decision. Fellow Commissioner Jim Talen asked the committee to reconsider or reject the move, according to the Grand Rapids press.
Committee chair Ted Vonk said that the panel was simply unaware of the coverage, saying that “even the administrator was surprised” to learn of the provision. “No one else brought it to our attention, so we sort of tripped over it,” he told LSN.
Vonk explained the committee’s new rule: “If upon expiration of the bargaining unit’s collective bargaining agreement, the unit has not voluntarily removed elective abortions as a covered benefit, the county administrator is directed to include a proposal to remove elective abortion as a covered medical benefit as part of the unit’s successor agreements.”
Although the committee has received some opposition to the move from among labor union circles, Vonk said there would be little room for maneuvering.
“One way or the other, it’s going.”