GOOD NEWS ALERT: New Oregon Law Expands Abortion Access, Reproductive Health Services For Thousands

By Lauren Evans  |  August 16, 2017 | 4:47am
Politics

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has officially signed into a law one of the most progressive reproductive health policies in the country, expanding coverage on abortions and other services to thousands of residents regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity. Where’s the catch, you wonder? In this very specific instance, there is none. Enjoy this, comrades: For this is what we call good news. Let it sink in like an extremely luxurious leave-in conditioner.

The measure, called the Reproductive Health Equity Act, requires health insurers to provide birth control and abortions without charging a co-pay, and also allocates state funds to provide reproductive health care to non-citizens unable to access Medicaid, the Washington Post reports.

The Pro-Choice Coalition of Oregon, which helped write the law, said that the new legislation will not only increase access to abortion, but also birth control and postpartum care for low-income women. It also adds that this is the first legislation in the States to comprehensively address systemic barriers to reproductive health care.

As Amy Casso, Planned Parenthood’s director of the Gender Justice Program for Western States, said in a statement:

“In the face of relentless rollbacks and attacks at the federal level, Oregonians are showing the rest of the country what it means to be resilient and visionary. There is still work to be done, but today we celebrate that more Oregonians have the freedom to decide if and when they have children based on what’s best for them and their family’s circumstances.”

ABC reports that the law allocates $500,000 from Oregon’s general fund over the next two years. The bill passed the state legislature in July, with Democrats and Republicans generally voting along party lines.

Naturally, anti-abortion groups had themselves a little conniption, burbling up some boilerplate feculence that I have no desire to reprint here. On a different day, one in which the president didn’t reveal himself to be a Nazi-apologist, I might have grudgingly “gotta hear both sides’d” this thing, but you know what? Nah.

 
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