New Michigan law requires separate insurance for abortions

In a few months, Michigan residents who want abortion insurance will have to pay extra to get it. Lawmakers on Wednesday passed the requirement into law, which the state’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed about a year ago.

“This bill came back to the legislature by kind of a unique process called a citizen’s initiative,” Jonathan Oosting, MLive.com’s state Capitol reporter, told Post TV’s Chris Cillizza. Pro-life groups were able to collect enough signatures to send the bill back to state lawmakers, he said.

The new law makes Michigan the 24th state to restrict abortion coverage in plans offered through the insurance exchanges created under the president’s health-care law. Insurance covered 3.3 percent of the abortions in Michigan last year, the Associated Press reported, citing state statistics. That translates to 739 procedures out of a total of roughly 23,000 — the second-lowest total in 30 years.

Watch Cillizza and Oosting discuss the vote, the emotional fight over it, what it means and efforts to preempt the law that goes into effect in March.