Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs final Reproductive Health Act bill
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the final piece of the Reproductive Health Act on Monday.
That final piece means that Michiganders no longer have to get a separate rider for their health insurance for abortion care.
Pro-life advocates say they're disappointed but shifting their focus in 2024.
"The bill we were debating at the time would have forced me to buy insurance for my own rape before it happened or to bear the child of my attacker. Ten years ago today, I gave that speech, and it didn't change a single vote on the Senate floor," said Whitmer during her remarks prior to the signing. "Today, exactly ten years later, I'm honored to stand here as the governor and sign the repeal of that awful law."
This final bill in the Reproductive Health Act also protects medical personnel and patients themselves. Right to Life Michigan tells CBS News Detroit that the organization is disappointed by the change.
"What this repeal of this particular law does, it now forces you and me and everybody else who maybe is not in favor of abortion to now have to pay for it through taxpayer subsidies for these exchanges and in our insurance premiums," said Genevieve Marnon, legislative director for Right to Life Michigan.
In 2024, she said, Right to Life Michigan is shirting from the unborn.
"Our current focus really is to defeat assist a doctor-prescribed suicide," Marnon said. "Those bills were recently introduced in the Michigan Senate, and it would lead to, uh, doctors being prescribing lethal doses of drugs for the sole purpose of their patients to kill themselves. And, you know, Right to Life of Michigan is interested in protecting innocent life, from conception to natural death."
