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Why Trump is now investigating Maine for requiring insurers to cover abortion
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced on March 19 that it would investigate Maine and 12 other states that have laws requiring health insurance plans to cover abortion services.
The office is asserting that a federal provision called the Weldon Amendment, which protects "health care entities" such as hospitals, physicians or health plans from discrimination if they do not provide or pay for abortions, also protects employers or other health insurance plan sponsors if they do not pay for or cover abortions.
The Office for Civil Rights said in its notice to the Maine Department of Insurance that it had reviewed Maine’s laws and determined that it had “sufficient authority and cause to investigate whether Maine is unlawfully coercing entities covered by Federal health care conscience protection laws to provide, pay for, or provide coverage of abortion, or is otherwise discriminating against such entities in violation of these laws.”
Under Maine law, state-regulated medical insurers and MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, are required to cover family planning services, abortion services and pregnancy-related services. The state does not regulate self-funded health plans or Medicare, and there are some exceptions for religious employers’ health insurance, according to the state.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis and an expert on the law, history and politics of reproduction, said the investigation is not a surprise, but it comes at an interesting time politically for the Trump administration. |
