Ohio Health Insurance Exchanges Ban Abortion Coverage

Ohio's health insurance exchanges are banned from providing any type of abortion coverage, according to the Reuters article, "Ohio bans abortion funding in insurance exchanges," by Mary Wisniewski. Under President Obama's healthcare reform, states must create health insurance exchanges for easy health care shopping by 2014. Governor John Kasich of Ohio, a Republican, signed the ban of any abortion coverage in their health insurance exchange. This ban will be in place regardless of whether the citizen plans to pay for their abortion with their own money; health insurance will not cover any of the procedure.

There is definitely outrage from pro-choice and other groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said that it would sue the state if this became a law, so that may be coming soon. NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio's executive director argues that this law violates Ohio's Constitution. On the other side of the argument, Ohio Right to Life's executive director says that abortion is not actually healthcare. So while these groups agree that everyone should have access to healthcare, the groups don't agree as to whether or not abortion is actually healthcare. Abortion has been a hot debate for decades, so regardless of the law the topic will continue to be debated and fought over in the legal system.