But the patient didn't have a printer, so when she arrived at her appointment, she hadn't brought a hard copy of the required form. Her appointment had to be postponed.
"During that time, her cardiac status became even higher risk, and it was evident that she would need a higher level of care in a hospital setting," Roque said. "This meant that the cost would be much, much higher: over $10,000. And since her insurance was legally prohibited from covering abortion care, she anticipated she would have to incur significant medical debt. In the end, she suffered a five-week delay from the first day I saw her [to] when her procedure was finally completed. The delay was entirely unnecessary."
At this moment Michigan still has two major barriers to abortion care
1.) Medicaid won't help with abortion care
2.) You still need to go through 19 pages of paperwork. You electronically sign the paperwork and it is dated and timed. You must print this paper and bring it to your appointment. Your appointment must be at least 24 hours since you signed, but no more than two weeks either. The doctor interviewed mentions that there are many times where people print the wrong paper and that she legally cannot perform the procedure. Planned Parenthood says they turn away/delay abortions for at least 150 people a month because they did not print the correct paperwork.
Oh also, of course the 19 pages you have to go through show pictures of smiling pregnant people and people cradling newborn babies. :)
So to help combat this, and make abortion care more accessible, there is a new bill called the "Reproductive Health Act" being introduced that would eliminate these barriers
Michigan is a democratic majority now, but only by a thin margin. If someone crosses party lines, or doesn't vote with the rest of their party, that means bills won't pass.
Democratic representative Karen Whitsett claims that the current proposal goes too far. She says she has had an abortion in the past and had no issues with the 24 waiting period, so therefore it should be fine for everyone else. She also disagrees with Medicaid paying for abortions (since that is state tax dollars). She claims other Democratic representatives have agreed with her behind closed doors, even if their votes say otherwise.
There is now a movement to push Whitsett to join in with the rest of her party to push and vote yes on the Reproductive Health Act. Doctors who perform abortion care are also urging her as well, but at this time it looks like she will not budge.
At this time, Gov Gretchen Whitmer still expects the bill to pass.