Hillsdale Right to Life petitions abortion insurance

Home City News Hillsdale Right to Life petitions abortion insurance

Hillsdale County’s Right to Life group met Sept. 12 to finish their plan for gathering support for a petition in favor of the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act

The group gathered at the home of Charles “Bud” Vear, president of the group, to plan their booth for the Hillsdale County Fair, where they hope to collect more signatures for a statewide petition drive to introduce the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act to the Michigan legislature.

The act would allow the exclusion of abortion coverage as a standard benefit under the health insurance plans operating in compliance with the state Affordable Care Act exchange.

“We’ve only collected 1,279 petitions, which is only 51 percent of our goal. If they have a petition with just one or two signatures just send it in,” Vear said at the meeting. “We don’t want people hanging on to the petitions because we only have until Sept. 30.”

In order for the opt-out act to be proposed to the legislature as a “citizen petition,” a group—in this case the Right to Life of Michigan— must gather “the signatures of registered electors in an amount not less than 8 percent of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last gubernatorial election,” according to the 2009-2010 Michigan Manual.

In addition to participating in this statewide push for the opt-out act, The Hillsdale RTL’s new booth will include a five-foot display rack containing facts and statistics on abortion and a Touch of Life in the Womb Model.

The Touch of Life in the Womb Model contains a fetus in the mother’s womb beginning at 10 weeks and progressing to 12 weeks, 14 weeks, and 16 weeks. The fetuses can be separated from the womb and held by Hillsdale County Fair attendees at the RTL booth.

“We have to make sure to keep those safe because I can see somebody taking the babies,” Rosa Church, a Hillsdale RTL board member, said.

“[The Touch of Life Model] is much nicer than the one we used to have at the Alpha Omega [Women’s Care] Center. The babies are durable and people can pick them up,” Vear said. “And the display usually generates interest more than anything else.”

In order to increase awareness, the board agreed in its Sept. 12 meeting to give $400 to a ministry called “And Then There Were None,” started by a former Planned Parenthood employee, Abby Johnson, who is now an advocate for the pro-life cause.

The board has also agreed to send up to 10 interested pro-life advocates to the Right to Life Michigan State conference in Lansing, Mich. on Sept. 27.

Speakers include Paige Stock Cunningham, executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, and Shauna Prewitt, an author, attorney, advocate, and public speaker.

Prewitt will tell her compelling story of being raped in college, yet choosing to continue with her pregnancy and raise her child.

The Right to Life of Hillsdale County’s 2013 membership totals 292. Through the use of pro-life models, display racks, and personal testimonies, they hope to increase awareness and end abortion.