(LifeSiteNews) — With the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization only months away, both sides in the abortion wars are preparing for what may come if Roe falls.
According to Bloomberg, some big companies are preparing to fund both abortions and travel for their employees should they need to go out of state. Citigroup Inc., Apple, Bumble, and Hewlett Packard are among the first to offer health care benefits that include out-of-state abortions. Abortion groups are applauding these moves and urging other major corporations to do the same.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma legislature passed an abortion ban even more comprehensive than the Texas Heartbeat Act on March 22. Like the Texas law, which has thus far survived all challenges, House Bill 4327 would allow private individuals to sue abortionists or those assisting them. The bill is also expected to pass the Oklahoma senate.
A day later, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a law modeled after the Texas Heartbeat Act banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and enforced via private lawsuit to avoid constitutional court challenges. Governor Little admitted he had Rep over the law’s constitutionality but signed it anyway. “I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of pre-born babies,” he wrote in a letter to Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, president of the Senate.
The same day, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed a law requiring women seeking an abortion to make three visits to a doctor in order to take abortion pills. A U.S. District judge has halted implementation, stating that this would make pill abortions so difficult to obtain that the law constitutes “an undue burden on a person’s right to seek an abortion.” South Dakota has appealed that decision to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
One consequence of these pro-life laws is that it is increasingly difficult for medical students and residents to getting abortion training. As People Magazine put it: “[T]he number of residency programs located in states where hospital employees are prohibited from performing or teaching about abortion — or at Catholic-owned hospitals with similar bans — has skyrocketed in recent years, an overlooked by-product of anti-abortion legislation taking root in the American South, Midwest, and Mountain states.” Those wanting to become abortionists now often have to travel as far as those seeking abortions.
Meanwhile, Democrat-run states are taking the opposite approach. On March 23, the Colorado Senate passed The Reproductive Health Equity Act with a vote of 20-15. HB22-1279 was drafted to protect the legality of abortion in Colorado in case the U.S. Supreme Court does overturn Roe this June. The bill, which led to the longest debate in Colorado history, enshrines abortion as a fundamental right and specifically denies human rights to pre-born human beings, stating that “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights.”
The previous day, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 245, the Abortion Accessibility Act, which eliminates out-of-pocket costs for procuring an abortion. California already requires health insurance companies to cover abortions, but this new bill covers any other abortion-related expenses and also bans health insurers from imposing any cost-sharing requirements for abortion-related “services.” According to Newsom: “With this legislation, we’ll help ensure equitable, affordable access to abortion services so that out-of-pocket costs don’t stand in the way of receiving care.”
There are many other abortion laws currently being debated across America as state legislators scramble to position themselves for a post-Roe world. In red states, lawmakers want to ensure that pre-born human rights are respected and abortion becomes rare, if not non-existent. Conversely, many blue states are passing laws to ensure that their abortion regimes will be more liberal when Roe falls rather than less. The laws and the lines will soon be redrawn, and the human rights of human beings will not only depend on whether they are inside or outside the womb—but whether they are inside or outside of California.
