OLYMPIA, Wash. — Lawmakers in Washington State have passed a bill that requires insurance companies to cover abortion and contraception.
The Senate passed S.B. 6219, also known as the Reproductive Parity Act, on Saturday 27-22 after approving changes made by the House. It now moves to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign the legislation into law.
“[I]f a health plan issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2019, provides coverage for maternity care or services, the health plan must also provide a covered person with substantially equivalent coverage to permit the abortion of a pregnancy,” the bill reads in part.
It refers to abortion as “reproductive health care,” and asserts that “[a]ccess to contraception has been directly connected to the economic success of women and the ability of women to participate in society equally.”
“Unintended pregnancy is associated with negative outcomes, such as delayed prenatal care, maternal depression, increased risk of physical violence during pregnancy, low birth weight, decreased mental and physical health during childhood, and lower education attainment for the child,” the legislation, put forward by Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, also claims in arguing why contraception access should be expanded.
“The Reproductive Parity Act is a dramatic example, in my mind, of how we put people first and how we can improve women’s access to services that are critical to their health,” Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, asserted in January as the bill was being considered in the Senate.
However, others lamented the culture of death that the bill perpetuates.
“What are we coming to that we can’t value human life?” asked Sen. Jan Angel, R-Kitsap, according to the Daily Sun News.
“People who oppose abortion at any stage do so because it violates their conscience,” Sarah Davenport-Smith of the group Human Life told local television station KIRO. “Every citizen is guaranteed absolute freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment, belief and worship. S.B. 6219 forces Washingtonians to go against their conscience and pay for abortions.”
2018 is not the first time that the bill has been presented to lawmakers. In 2013, the Reproductive Parity Act cleared the House but was not successful in the Senate. The measure has long been backed by NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.
As previously reported, from its early years, Christians have decried abortion in America as being the savage murder of innocent children. Even in 1872, preacher Thomas De Witt Talmage wrote in his book “The Abominations of Modern Society”:
“Herod’s massacre of the innocents was as nothing compared to that of millions and millions by what I shall call ante-natal murders. You may escape the grip of the law, because the existence of such life was not known by society, but I tell you that at last God will shove down on you the avalanche of His indignation, and though you may not have wielded knife or pistol in your deeds of darkness, yet, in the day when John Wilkes Booth and Antony Probst come to judgment, you will have on your brow the brand of murderer.”
Ecclesiastes 11:5 also reads, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”
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