Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has vetoed SB 1293, a bill that would have overhauled Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and which contained a provision that would have required women to purchase a separate insurance rider that would cover abortions. A second bill, SB 1294 contained a provision requiring this for BCBS insurance, as well. Since 1294 was tie-barred to 1293, both are vetoed.
However, Snyder signed HB 5711. This requires facilities conducting more than 120 abortions per year to be licensed and which, among other things, outlaws “telemedicine” to be used for medicine abortions where doctors could prescribe abortion pills via telephone, internet, or video conference. Although Snyder and his Republican colleagues raved about the advantages of telemedicine just this past summer when they passed a bill allowing it, suddenly they are against it for this particular use.
Snyder’s letter explaining his decision is HERE (pdf).
It seems pretty clear to me that Rick Snyder is trying to salvage some semblance of “centrism”, of being a “moderate”, even though he has shown that he actually is not and that he will vote with the hardcore conservatives the vast majority of the time. If he thinks a single veto like this will be enough to make Michiganders, especially women, forget about his role in the War on Women in this state, he is sadly mistaken. I and many other will be reminding the citizens of Michigan repeatedly what he did and will do everything in our power to ensure that he and his ideologically-driven ultra-conservative Republican pals are not reelected in 2014.
