Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) signed legislation on Monday repealing a 2013 law restricting health insurance coverage for abortion.
The measure repeals the decade-old statute that stipulated health insurers could only cover abortions through the provision of separate insurance riders.
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During her position as minority leader of the Michigan Senate, Whitmer condemned the law as requiring women to purchase “rape insurance” to cover an abortion in the event that they became pregnant after a sexual assault.
Whitmer disclosed her own sexual assault publicly for the first time during her speech against the legislation on Dec. 11, 2013. Although Whitmer did not become pregnant, she said at the time that the issue was “personal to me and so many Michigan women.”
The legislation is part of a nine-bill legislative package that removes several restrictions on abortion and puts the language of the Reproductive Freedom for All constitutional amendment, known as Proposal 3, into state law.
“I am proud that in just over 18 months, we have gone from the repeal of Roe v. Wade to expanding reproductive freedom in Michigan with the passage of Proposal 3 and the Reproductive Health Act,” Whitmer said on signing the legislation.
Whitmer signed the landmark bill inside the Senate’s chamber, an uncommon place for a governor to sign legislation.
The Michigan Catholic Conference criticized the signing of Monday’s legislation, saying that the measure goes beyond what the voters were promised when they enshrined abortion rights into their state constitution in 2022.
Michigan Catholic Conference policy advocate Rebecca Mastee said that although voters were told that the new policies would restore the status quo of Roe v. Wade, “the abortion lobby has leveraged passage of the new constitutional amendment to make Michigan an extreme outlier on abortion policy.”
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State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, the lead sponsor of the bill, said the legislation affirms the state’s commitment to bodily autonomy.
“We are saying definitively that Michigan is a state that values and protects the right of every person to determine their own reproductive future,” Pohutsky said.
