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Friday, November 9, 2018

University of Wyoming Student Health Plan pays for elective abortions

The College Fix recently reported that elective abortions are covered by the University of Wyoming student health plan. Since this is the default plan for foreign students, over 600 have been automatically enrolled in it this year.

In a state where the last Planned Parenthood clinic shuttered its operation in 2017, one might assume that abortion just isn’t an issue. After all, Wyoming’s department of health “has received fewer than five [abortion] reports over the last five years,” according to Mariah Storey, a vital services unit supervisor, quoted in Rewire News.

But this isn’t the whole story. The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research arm, reported 380 abortions in the years 2011, 2013 and 2014, more than 75 times the reported number! Why is there such a huge disparity between the official tally and Planned Parenthood’s own data?

Wyoming’s two most prominent abortionists provide the answer. Dr. Brent Blue, who performs surgical abortions out of Emerg-A-Care in Jackson, told Rewire News, “I do not report to the state because it is none of their business.” While Blue refuses to report to the state of Wyoming, he does diligently report to the Guttmacher Institute.

Dr. Giovannina Anthony, who performs medical abortions about a block away from Blue, agrees. The same article quotes her as saying, “If you are looking for numbers, that [the Guttmacher Institute] is where you should focus your efforts. Their stats appropriately assess the need for reproductive services.”

This open flaunting of Wyoming law sounds eerily similar to Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who is currently spending the rest of his life in a Pennsylvania prison. That monster considered any and every health regulation to be an unnecessary annoyance that he was free to ignore in “service” of his patients. At least that’s how he justified his disease-ridden practice and murderous methods.

If Blue and Anthony openly ignore Wyoming’s reporting laws, I wonder what other Wyoming health laws they feel free to break? State law forbids abortion once the child is developed enough to survive outside the womb. Do they care about that one, or do they think it’s “none of our business”?

In 2017 Governor Mead signed into law a requirement that abortionists must offer an ultrasound picture to the mother. Blue responded to this by writing, “It’s a law that has no teeth, and there’s no way to enforce it. It won’t change one thing for us” (The Last Clinics, Vice News, May 23, 2017).

These admissions demonstrate why Wyoming should add some teeth to our defanged health laws.

Not only does Wyoming have way more abortions happening within her borders than are ever reported, there are also many abortions happening just across state lines. The Centers for Disease Control reported that in 2014 (the most recent data available) 642 Wyoming residents procured abortions in Colorado, Montana and Utah.

This fact highlights the real-world consequences of our UW student insurance plan. Less than sixty miles from campus is a Planned Parenthood clinic in Fort Collins. On-sight observers estimate three dozen surgical abortions each weekend of the school year. This is an “in-network” facility for United Health Care, the plan offered to UW students. Students who do not read the fine print are likely subsidizing Planned Parenthood by their insurance premiums.

How many of the students who sign up for this plan know about the abortion coverage? When Betzold was asked this question, she replied: “Students are provided electronic access to a summary brochure and a detailed policy document with all policy terms, including coverages and exclusions.”

That is true. I was able to go onto the UW website and find the Insurance Certificate listing “elective abortion” coverage. However, even knowing what I was looking for, it took me about half an hour of searching. One wonders how many get that far.

Why has the University of Wyoming chosen to weigh in on such a loaded issue? After all, there are only a handful of Universities in the nation that have such a draconian student health plan.

The governor’s office told the College Fix that it is merely because the United Health Plan submitted the most competitive bid to the University. There is no reason to dispute that fact. Abortions are probably cheaper than live births. But money is not the only consideration when it comes to proper health care.

We must consider the well-being of our students first and foremost. Numerous studies show how abortion can harm women. None exist that document any health benefits. Before offering students a plan that pays for abortion, we should at least be assured that it is proper “health care.”

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Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, November 9, 2018
Lange: Few know UW health plan covers abortions

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