The Parnell administration has issued regulations restricting what constitutes a medically necessary abortion qualifying for Medicaid reimbursement –- and critics of the effort blasted the governor on Tuesday.
Under the regs, a certificate to be filled out to request Medicaid funds would require medical providers to certify that a pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or its termination would be necessary to save the woman's life. The provider could also assert that the abortion was medically necessary to avoid risk to the woman's heath due to "impairment of a major bodily function," alongside a list of 21 medical conditions. The list also includes "another physical disorder" and "a psychiatric disorder that places the woman in imminent danger."
Sen. Jack Coghill, R-North Pole, applauded the move by the Parnell administration and called for a legislative follow-up.
"State Medicaid should not be funding elective procedures, including elective abortions," Coghill said in a press release. "I'd still like to see statutory language, passed by the Legislature, that defines 'medically necessary abortions' for the purposes of making payments under Medicaid."
Others criticized the regulation change.
"Government should not be involved in these decisions, period," said Sen. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, in a press release. "We in Alaska have a strong belief in, and a constitutional right to, privacy, and we don't want government's hands involved in personal decisions about our bodies."
"These decisions should be made by a woman in consultation with her doctor, her family, and her faith," added Rep. Harriet Drummond, D-Anchorage. "No government bureaucrat in a cubicle should be able to take that choice away from disadvantaged women or any other woman."
The Parnell administration proposed the regulations after a measure sponsored by Coghill to define the conditions under which the state must pay for abortions stalled in the state legislature last year in its final hours.
State data shows that in 2011, 623 of the state's 1,627 abortions -- or roughly 38 percent -- were paid for through Medicaid.