House Committee on State Affairs

Testimony in Opposition to HB 3130

Submitted on Behalf of Trust Respect Access Coalition
Dear Chairman Cook and members of the House State Affairs Committee:
We are a broad coalition of diverse organizations working to support policies that restore trust in
Texans to make their own reproductive health care decisions, respect for health care
professionals and access to safe, timely abortion care.
Collectively, we are opposed to HB 3130 because it is effectively a ban on abortion for anyone
purchasing insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange. More specifically, we oppose
HB 3130 for the following reasons:
Every woman should be able to make the personal decision she thinks is best for her and
her family and privately purchase the insurance plan she thinks is best for her and her
family.
We believe that a woman and her family are in the best position to make their own personal
decisions about their reproductive health care. Every woman should have access to contraception
to prevent unintended pregnancies, access to safe and timely abortion, and access to prenatal care
to ensure healthy pregnancies and healthy children.
Health and safety should come first.
Timely access to abortion care is the best way to ensure the health and safety of a woman in need
of an abortion. If you take away insurance coverage for abortion from the health insurance
exchange, you place a barrier in the way of access to safe medical care. These barriers can lead
to delays in care and increase health risks. If you ban insurance coverage for abortion from the
exchange, a pregnant person may not be able to access a licensed, quality health provider in a
timely manner.
Many things can happen in pregnancy that are beyond a womans control and certainly beyond
her ability to predict at the time she purchases insurance, so it is important to make sure every
woman has coverage for the health care she may need. When a woman needs to end her
pregnancy, it is important that she has access to safe medical care.
This bill provides very narrow exceptions for instances when a pregnant person is at risk of
dying or serious bodily impairments as a result of her pregnancy, and does not even include an
exception for pregnancies that are the result of sexual assault. This impedes a physicians ability
to treat their patients according to their best medical judgment and the needs of the person they
treat.
A person facing an unintended pregnancy should not have to make the decision about whether or
not to end her pregnancy based on what procedures her health insurance covers it should be
based on what is best for her health and her familys circumstances.

Access to health care should not be limited by income.

Restrictions on abortion coverage have a disproportionate impact on low-income Texans, Texans
of color, immigrant Texans and young Texans. A woman participating in the health insurance
exchanges health care services shouldnt receive services inferior to the services available to a
woman who has more money.
A woman in Texas who buys health insurance should be able to expect ALL procedures to be
covered by her health insurance without carve-outs for specific health care or the necessity to
buy a rider in order to get full coverage for the range of health care she might need. Simply put:
All insurance coverage should provide a full range of legal medical procedures, including
abortion, so a woman can make the best decision for her circumstances.
Every pregnancy is different; we must respect physicians to treat their patients and trust families
to make the decisions that are best for them.
In matters of health care, an individual will always be in a better position than the Legislature to
evaluate what care is best for them and their family. This bill is political interference with what
should be a free market health care exchange, and political interference with a womans most
personal medical decisions.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments.

Respectfully,
Heather Busby
Executive Director, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas
On behalf of the Trust Respect Access Coalition
ACLU of Texas
Planned Parenthood
Texas Freedom Network
Whole Womans Health

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas

Texas Research Institute
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health