(You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.)
Colorado conservatives need to accept this simple fact, Colorado is not just a pro-choice state. We are a pro-abortion state. And we’re going to be for a long, long time.
Senate Bill 189 goes further. It would mandate not only your employer’s health insurance cover your abortion but that you not be charged a co-pay, deductible or coinsurance for it. In other words, everyone else gets taxed 100% for your abortion.
First a word about words. Thanks to constant air-support from the media, progressives have always been magnificent at semantic warfare. They say the opposite of what they mean. It’s not “racial discrimination,” it’s “affirmative action.” It’s not “gun control,” it’s “reducing gun violence.” It’s not a “sex change,” it’s “gender-affirming.”
Senate Bill 189 is all about “access to reproductive health care services,” when, in fact, it has nothing to do with reproduction.
It has everything to do with anti-reproduction, what we used to call birth control, stopping reproduction via abortion and sterilization, and getting others to pay for it.
Senate Bill 189 does a whole bunch of things, including mandating any employer with more than 100 employees provide health insurance that charges no deductible, copay, or coinsurance for abortions.
In other words, a woman can get an abortion and pay absolutely nothing. Everyone else in the insurance pool is forced to absorb the full cost.
I’m trying to find any logical consistency in this bill.
For the sake of argument, let’s just use the reasoning a fetus is “just a clump of cells” in order to lessen the ethical and moral outrage that pollutes any discussion around the issue.
If a woman goes in to get her tonsils removed, she must pay a deductible, copay, or coinsurance. But under SB 189 if she gets her fetus removed, she doesn’t. They get yanked for free. What makes this clump of cells special?
If she needs her appendix out — copay. Wants the fetus out — no copay. It seems the pro-abortion folks are saying some clumps of cells are more equal than others.
I think I know why. Read on.
The bill goes on regarding other areas of “reproduction:”
Under SB-189 if you are getting treated for “sexually transmitted infection,” what we used to call “sexually transmitted disease” (before someone felt stigmatized by “disease”), what we used to call “the clap,” you also can not be charged a deductible, copay, or coinsurance.
So, herpes virus — no copay. Coronavirus — copay.
So, next time I go in with COVID (again) I’ll be screaming, “I swear I got it when I was having sex with a stranger! You can’t charge me a copay!”
The bill goes on for more un-reproduction service mandates, particularly sterilization.
Men, ready for that vasectomy? Everyone else will pay for your deductible, copay, or coinsurance. Ladies, want your tubes tied? Same thing. Gender doesn’t matter! But it does. It’s easy on a guy — why we call it getting snipped — with a simple little office visit. But the woman’s body is definitely more form over function here, requiring major surgery, two incisions where her appendix removal required only one. Yet still no copay?
Senate Bill 189 has nothing to do with reproduction, also known as creating new people.
It has everything to do with getting laid and avoiding creating new people by having others pay 100% for the negative externalities of having sex — the clap and unwanted children.
Lifestyles have risk. You ski, bike, hike? You might get hurt from your activity and pay some deductibles for medical attention. We all have.
If Senate Bill 189 passes into law, it is not a victory for the special interest called “reproductive health” enthusiasts. It is a victory for the special interest called “we like getting it on” enthusiasts.
I’m not a moralist. The only anger to progressives having reckless sex is I’m not getting any.
Remove the deductible, copay, coinsurance and mandate insurance coverage on hair transplants and liposuction, maybe I’ll become a socialist as well. Then I too could find willing mates, contract a sexually transmitted disease, and get treated without a copay. Finally, this legislature would work for me.
It’s all about getting others to pay for what you want.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
