Assembly Committee Considers Ban on Comprehensive Reproductive Health Coverage for Women in State Government

MADISON, Wis. — The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Program and Development Manager Analiese Eicher regarding today’s Assembly Committee on Health public hearing on Assembly Bill 216, legislation to restrict reproductive health care options for women state employees and their families:

“Unable to ban abortion, anti-choice zealots in the Wisconsin State Legislature are seeking to chip away at a woman’s right to a safe, legal abortion.

“Reproductive health choices are some of the most personal decisions a woman makes with her doctor, and should not be made by politicians seeking to impose their personal beliefs on women.

“Yet AB 216 would ban insurance coverage of legal abortion services for public employees except in rare, limited circumstances.

“This bill denies women in the public sector the same reproductive health coverage as women in the private sector, discriminates against women by forcing them to spend more than men on medical care and prohibits women from protecting themselves from the costs associated essential medical treatment.

“This bill does not include the critical exemption of allowing coverage for an abortion if the health of a mother who is a state employee is threatened.

“And AB 216 even goes so far as to attack women’s access to contraception. Under the ACA women’s contraceptives must be covered by insurance. This bill denies certain women that access and imposes significant medical costs.

“Assembly Bill 216 is political, discriminatory and unfair.”