Under the new law, women who are looking to have an abortion now have to pay for the procedure on their own.
Instead of insurance companies selling abortion services as part of their benefits, women can choose to purchase an optional policy add-on. The add-on, or rider, requires a woman to purchase abortion coverage in advance.
States can choose to enforce the opt-out through a provision of the Affordable Care Act.
The law was approved by both the Michigan House and Senate in December after Michigan Right to Life spearheaded a successful citizen-initiated petition.
Campus Republicans member Lisa Jankowski sees the new law as a positive.
“It protects the constitutional rights of many individuals that do not want their tax dollars going towards the funding of abortions,” Jankowski said.
Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, voiced her opposition in a statement made Thursday.
“I’m proud to know that I come here every day and fight to make Michigan a better place for my two daughters. But I’m disgusted to know that they’re now growing up in a state in which this kind of misogyny is now the law of the land,” Whitmer said in her statement.
