Wake County reinstates abortion coverage

Raleigh, N.C. — The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to resume insurance coverage of elective abortions for employees.

Commissioner Harold Webb, who is recovering from a stroke, called the meeting and cast a vote by phone to break the board's 3-3 deadlock on the issue. The vote broke along party lines, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposing it.

County Manager David Cooke had eliminated the coverage last month, citing a 1981 state Supreme Court ruling that the county attorney believed barred the use of tax dollars for elective abortions.

County officials apparently didn't notice when its insurance provider added the elective abortions coverage to the county's plan in 1999.

Commissioner Stan Norwalk disagreed with that interpretation and said the board should have voted on the decision to remove abortion coverage from the county's insurance policy.

Norwalk said fewer than 20 women have had county-funded abortions in the last five years.

Republican commissioners said Norwalk's resolution was written by an adviser to Planned Parenthood.

"Our county attorney, our legal adviser has advised us that having county-funded abortions is illegal," Commissioner Joe Bryan said. "You're taking other people's interpretation over our trusted county attorney's."

Commissioner Lindy Brown countered by saying that even Cooke and the county attorney can make mistakes.

"We just want to make sure that the county manager and attorney (don't take) authority without coming to this board," Brown said.

The change in the insurance coverage will take effect by Friday.

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Latest Comments

"i dont want my tax dollars going to abortions"

I dont want mine going to build hospitals in Iraq. I dont want mine going to rebuild a Muslim country.

AWWW poor baby not getting what THEY want.

chromelexus22
March 17, 2010 3:07 p.m.

How does a fetus have rigths? If you are 5 years old and run away from home, what happens? You have no rights. The police find you and take you back to your legal gaurdian. Whats rights? LOL good lord. Bbbbbbbbbbb but they deserve the right to pursue happiness even if there are in the womb. Thats what the 5 year old said when he ran away. He was pursuing happiness until the GOVERNMENT took his behind back home!!!

chromelexus22
March 17, 2010 3:04 p.m.

Yay, Wake County got it right... we need to keep our do-nothing government employee benefits competitive with the private sector.

In retrospect, maybe they should get no health coverage and pay for it on their own, like most people in hte private sector nowadays.

Nikka
March 17, 2010 2:35 p.m.

Odd...,

The folks who want to keep the Government out of health care coverage want to tell everyone else what to include in health care...

...and marriage...and religion...and stem cell research...and prayer...and the list goes on....

independent_thinker
March 16, 2010 7:03 p.m.

"An fetus taken outside of the mother in the 1st trimester stands no chance ..blah on and on"

Wrong, eggs and sperm have the potential to "create" life. I dont "claim" a fetus is human, its a scientific fact. You're attempt to turn your semantics into fact boil down to nothing more than this....you believe that value of human life is itself arbitrary and dependent upon anything other than the simple truth that even the smallest of children are in fact human beings. By your logic, it would be alright to kill people on life support machines if it inconveniences someone else. Deny that.