In an effort to rally his anti-abortion voting base, President Trump issued yet another attack on reproductive health and rights last week when the Department of Health and Human Services threatened to withhold federal funding from California if the state does not remove its requirement that private health insurance plans include abortion coverage.
Congress has longed blocked access to abortion for poor and low-income women with the Hyde Amendment, which separates abortion care from other health care by prohibiting federal funding for those who get their health insurance coverage through the government. Now, the Trump administration wants to block coverage for abortion care for those with private insurance. This attack came the same week that Black Women for Wellness introduced legislation to expand abortion access in the state.
The attack on California’s requirement that private insurance plans cover the full range of pregnancy-related health care services, including abortion, is the latest of the administration’s efforts to undermine reproductive health care for all people. If they succeed, we can expect similar attacks against the five other states that mandate such coverage.
Black women already face systemic barriers to accessing health care—especially reproductive health services. Nearly 90 percent of Black adults believe that abortion care should be included in both private and government-funded health care coverage. This latest assault will erect more hurdles that will further endanger our lives and the lives of our family members.
In Our Own Voice and Black Women for Wellness stand with all women in California and across the country. We vow to continue our fight to ensure that every woman has the resources to make decisions about her own body regardless of her income, geography or insurance coverage.
