• A prohibition on abortion insurance coverage in any health care plan offered to state residents through the Affordable Care Act, except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.
• An expansion of protection to health-care workers to refuse to perform abortions on ethical or religious grounds.
Other provisions in the bill would stop local governments from covering abortion in their employee benefit plans. Currently, each city and county can decide what benefits to offer its employees.
“If this were to become law, … those (city or county) health plans could not have coverage on abortions that was different or greater than what the state health plan provides,” said Paul Meyer, director of governmental affairs for the League of Municipalities.
The state plan pays for abortion only in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life.
The league does not have a position on the bill, but the county commissioners’ association said the legislature should let commissioners make decisions about employee health insurance.
“It’s really an issue of local autonomy, local decision-making,” said Todd McGee, communications director for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners.
The bill also requires doctors to be present when a woman takes pills to induce abortion. Women take two medications a few days apart. Women usually take the second at home and return to the doctor for a follow-up visit.
In 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, 23.4 percent of the 26,192 abortions done in North Carolina were drug-induced, while 75.1 percent were from surgical procedures.
At least nine states have laws requiring doctors be present when women take pills inducing abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“When these bills have been floated around in other states, they have the effect of inhibiting choice and eliminating choice,” said Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat.
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Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/03/3007643/opponents-of-nc-abortion-bill.html#storylink=cpy
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