Oregon Democrats say abortion bill still on table
Democratic lawmakers in Salem say last week's failure of the GOP health care overhaul hasn't changed their plans to protect women's access to abortions under their insurance plans.
House Bill 3391 was largely the Oregon Legislature's response to the now-defunct American Health Care Act, which compromised roughly $10 billion in federal funds to the Pacific Northwest state through proposed abortion restrictions and overturning minimum coverage requirements for birth control and other reproductive services that were carved into the existing Affordable Care Act.
Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek told the Associated Press during a media briefing Monday the so-called Reproductive Health Equity Act is still on the table despite the federal overhaul's failure on Friday and earlier threats by Providence Health Plans to pull out of the Oregon insurance market should it pass.
"Other things could change at the national level ... they could have stand-alone bills, they could do other things so yeah, our plan is to still move it forward," Kotek said. "I think the bill speaks for itself and it's really important to a lot of people on this particular area of health care."
Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/28/oregon-democrats-say-abortion-bill-still-table/99736430/