http://news.yahoo.com/california-insurers-must-cover-elective-abortions-215127796.html
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Health insurance companies in California may not refuse to cover the cost of abortions, state insurance officials have ruled in a reversal of policy stemming from the decision by two Catholic universities to drop elective abortions from their employee health plans.
Although the federal Affordable Care Act does not compel employers to provide workers with health insurance that includes abortion coverage, the director of California's Department of Managed Health Care said in a letter to seven insurance companies on Friday that the state Constitution and a 1975 state law prohibits them from selling group plans that exclude the procedure. The law in question requires such plans to encompass all "medically necessary" care.
"Abortion is a basic health care service," department director Michelle Rouillard wrote in the letter. "All health plans must treat maternity services and legal abortion neutrally."
Jesuit-run Santa Clara University and Loyola Marymount University notified employees last fall that they planned to stop paying for elective abortions, but said faculty and staff members could pay for supplemental coverage that would be provided through a third party. The two schools said their insurers, Anthem Blue Cross and Kaiser Permanente, had cleared the move with the state.
Two groups that oppose abortion, the Life Legal Defense Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom, sent a letter to Rouillard on Friday saying that under federal law California cannot force employers to cover elective abortions. The groups said they would file a civil rights complaint with the federal government unless the state's previous determination was reinstated.
"Pro-life employers have the freedom to choose health insurance plans that do not conflict with their beliefs on the dignity of human life," Life Legal Defense Foundation Legal Director Catherine Short said. "California cannot be allowed to discriminate against health plans that don't cover elective abortions and force people to purchase coverage that conflicts with their convictions."
if you smell burning hair it's probably your local republican and his Bic or Zippo in overtime. change is slow because some are afflicted with archaic ideas and choose to impose them on others, but if you try and impose birth control or any contraception on them the fight is on, that separates to people those who care and those who wage war on women "UNDER COVER" because it doesn't exist keep it on the DL. pro life employers have the right to impose their questionable beliefs on you but there's no fair level playing field as long as congress and the scotus are on their side.
VOTE IN FAVOR OF YOU, THEY DO WHY NOT YOU?
