State Employees Abort On Taxpayer Funds

 Medical Insurance Plan Pays For Pregnancy Terminations

 By Paul Chesser

 RALEIGH- North Carolina taxpayers have spent more than $3.3-million on abortion procedures for state employees over the past five years, according to data uncovered by State Sen. James Forrester (R-Gaston).
Since 1995, the Tarheel state has averaged 420 pregnancy terminations on the state employee insurance plan per year, at an average claims payout cost of $656,608 annually.

The data has the director of the state's Christian Coalition shaking his head, and State Rep. Russell Capps (R-Wake) plans to investigate the use of state funds to pay for abortions, after the surprising disclosures.

"I was shocked that we were covering any abortions at all," said Capps. "We had thought there were no taxpayer funded abortions."

While difficult to narrow to specific numbers, North Carolina taxpayers shell out significant amounts of dollars to fund abortions by state employees through their medical insurance plan.

Procedures classified as "abortions" for the purposes of claims made on the Teachers and State Employee Major Medical Plan include miscarriages and other pregnancy complications that end in termination, as well as induced abortions.

In 1999, 431 such procedures were performed on state employees or their dependents at the cost of $745,869 paid in claims. According to Gordon Daughtry, director of program services for the plan, 73 of those procedures were carried out at facilities classified as "licensed clinics," meaning that those services were provided at lower cost and had a greater likelihood of being elective abortions.

Since 1995, 2101 procedures classified as "abortions" had been paid in claims for state employees or their dependents from the insurance plan. Those services resulted in claim payouts of almost $3.3 million.

The difficulty in separating elective abortions from other procedures such as miscarriages lies in the coding system used by the health insurance industry. The current procedural terminology, or CPT, does not distinguish one from the other, and therefore one "cannot infer intent," according to Daughtry.

Capps is concerned with the ambiguity in classifying procedures, and wants to make sure doctors aren't "getting by with classifying these as miscarriages." He said he wants to find out where the money is going also.

Capps has requested further information on the practices, in addition to employee insurance plan financing of contraception. Forrester collected the original "abortion" data at the request of Life Tree, a pro-life organization in Cary.

Life Tree approached Forrester because the state employee health benefit plan had a premium shortfall of $50 million, which caused the legislature to seek items to cut from the plan such as "lifestyle drugs." Such pharmaceuticals would include those that treat hair loss, wrinkles, obesity and impotence.

In a letter to North Carolina legislators, Life Tree quoted Jack Walker, director of the State Employees Health Plan, as criticizing lifestyle drugs as "not being for any medical affliction." In agreeing with Walker, Life Tree also wrote, "We think he is right, but would carry the argument one important step further. Fertility and pregnancy are certainly not medical afflictions! Should the state health benefit payments for abortion and contraceptive drugs not be targeted for elimination as well?"

According to Daughtry, the state pays $188 monthly for each employee's medical benefit premiums, and the employee is responsible for paying any dependents' coverage. The abortion figures cited are for all employees and their dependents. For example, in 1999 insurance paid for 358 abortion procedures for employees and 73 for their spouses.

State Representative Michael Decker (R-Forsyth) compared the issue to the $1.3 million state abortion fund for low-income citizens that existed up until 1994, when over 4,500 abortions were paid for. The legislature limited that fund to cases of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother in 1995, and only one abortion has been paid for from that fund since then.

"It's the legislature's position not to fund abortions," said Decker. "Those (procedures) that are elective abortions have no place in the medical plan being paid for by the state."

Both Capps and Decker were curious about authorization for the abortion procedures. According to Decker, the legislature had to authorize pap smears, breast screenings and prostate exams for the insurance plan by "specific legislation."

"I'd like to know how they got the authorization to cover these (abortions)," said Decker. "I'm just appalled."

Capps hopes to get more precise information on the number of elective abortions, so he can address the issue in the next legislative session. It may be difficult to find that number, though.

Whether the number is small or large, executive director of the state Christian Coalition Sim DeLapp says the issue is important.

"Sometimes people take these numbers and say, 'What else is new?" said DeLapp.

"We must never lose the sensitivity to the horrors that these numbers show."

Paul Chesser can be contacted at paul.chesser@thetriadworld.com.

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