By Dave Andrusko
Kary Moss, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan
We’ve written several times about Michigan’s citizen-initiated Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act. As RTL of Michigan, NRLC’s state affiliate, explained, the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act was about who desires abortion coverage and who will pay for it, not whether abortion is legal or if insurance is available.
Michigan’s Constitution allows the people to initiate legislation through a petition. To qualify, RTL of Michigan needed to collect 258,088 signatures which it did.
Once petitions were approved by the Board of Canvassers and submitted to the legislature, the legislature had 40 calendar days to say yes or no. All that was needed was a simple majority. In fact the vote last month was 62-47 in the House and 27-11 in the Senate.
What would pro-abortionists do in response? The following is from the blog of RTL of Michigan
During debate over the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act, abortion advocates threatened to organize a petition drive and gather enough signatures to put the legislation on the ballot in November. They would have been required to gather about half the number of signatures which were gathered by prolifers.
Today [Monday], Kary Moss of the ACLU admitted to the Detroit Free Press that they don’t have the resources to do a petition drive at this time.
After claiming for months that Michigan voters didn’t support the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act using biased and poorly-worded polls, pro-abortion groups conducted a new round of polling which likely used more accurate language and polling apparently didn’t turn out the way they wanted it to.
Abortion rights supporters won’t pursue a petition drive to repeal a law enacted last year requiring women to purchase an additional rider to their insurance if they want coverage for an abortion.
“The timing is a bit rough,” said Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU’s Michigan chapter.
Supporters would have had to gather 161,305 signatures by mid-March in order to get a repeal of the law on the November statewide ballot……
Pam Sherstad, spokeswoman for Michigan Right to Life, said she wasn’t surprised by the decision.
“When we were out and about collecting our signatures, we saw the support to give people an option on whether they want to include elective abortion in health insurance plans,” she said.
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