The Mayor introduced the change into the Council approval process after learning about past cases of elective abortions from his Cary friend Kent Misegades, also a director at the new Thales Academy and a founder of the controversial Cary Watchmen. Mayor Weatherly in effect decided it was appropriate for the Council to regulate employee morality and introduced the proposal to remove coverage from the Town provided insurance package that historically allowed women employees to have an elective abortion when needed. It was also done in a manner to not allow input from Town residents. Introducing the change in this manner the Mayor was able to fast track getting the change quietly added to the agenda with other items to pass on the night it was introduced. This avoided the accepted practice of advertising topics being considered by Town Council to area residents in advance of the voting process.
This controversial move has set off a storm of discussion in the surrounding area and has now led to other regional municipal groups debating insurance coverage of elective abortions and morality based issues. No other local municipalities deny similar coverage for employees to date. According to a recent News and Observer article on the Apex issue, there have only been three cases of Apex Town employees choosing to have an elective abortion. No information has been provided as to whether the choice of abortion made a difference to the health or well-being of the employees.
As noted in the February 6th, 2010, News and Observer article, "Apex's health insurance policy has for years afforded employees the benefit of having the procedure covered at a minimal out-of-pocket expense. During the past six years, three employees have claimed the benefit, town manager Bruce Radford said."
The proposal was quietly slipped into the meeting agenda as noted in the Council's minutes on the Town website...
Apex Town Council Meeting Minutes of January 19, 2010
REGULAR MEETING AGENDA
Mayor Weatherly presented the Regular Meeting Agenda to be set prior to taking action; amendments: 1) Mayor Weatherly asked to discuss town employee health plan...One of the Councilmen suggested putting the topic under the regular agenda items and the proposal was inserted in the regular agenda items section. When the topic later came up Mayor Weatherly presented the idea of removing elective abortions from the Town employee insurance plan as follows...
Presenter: Mayor Keith Weatherly
New Business # 04 – Add-on: Employee Health Plan
Mayor Weatherly had recently found Town of Apex employee health plan covered “elective abortions”, and understood it standard in most contracts, however, asked Council consider removing “elective abortions” from employee health plan, and not when it relates to health related issues. Human Resources Director Green stated this was correct; noted codes would indicate when abortion would be health related. Town is self funded, with Blue Cross and Blue Shield as administrator over the insurance coverage; BCBS advised the revision could be made to the Town’s contract to state the insurance coverage will no longer fund elective abortions and can have the coverage revision by February 1, 2010. With a brief discussion the following action was taken.
Action: Council Member Schulze made the motion to approve the omission of elective abortions from the town employee health plan. Council Member Gossage made the second to the motion. Motion carried unanimously.
End of New Business # 04Read the January 19, 2010 Town Council Minutes. News and Observer February 6, 2010, report on the Apex issue from the News and Observer can be read here.
What's your view? Should the Town of Apex be in the business of excluding elective abortions and regulating decisions on health care for the women employees or family members covered by Town health insurance? Is this discriminatory toward women employees? Leave a comment to voice your decision.
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3 comments:
Female Apex employees are being denied legal, safe comprehensive reproductive health care.
The Town Council should be making policy decisions not moral judgments. This decision is simply playing politics with women’s lives and opens the door for employers to deny coverage for everything from birth control to alcoholism to HIV and must be reversed.
No, I don't think the Town should be able to succeed with such discriminatory practices against its female employees. I was at the meeting last night to request the Council revisit the matter, and was appaled at the mulish nature of Council members Schulze and Gossage. Who made them the moral police, and why is the Town able to blur the lines of Church and State so easily and unimpeded?
Regardless of your opinion on abortion, this method of governing was sneaky and clandestine, and highly judgmental for a panel of middle- to upper-class Caucasian Christian men. Abortion is a very private and personal decision, and one that affects the woman involved, her partner and family, and ultimately her own salvation--if, after all that consideration she decides to move forward with an abortion, then it is her legal right to do so. The Town Council is sadly undiversified in both gender and ethnicity, and unfortunately Council member Jensen was strong-armed out of effectiveness.
This motion was appalling enough to me, but I found it to be doubly insulting on the heels of the Town announcing that it wouldn't be recognizing partner rights for the LGBT community. Again, the moral police were in action. And if the two-for-two nature of their recent success is any hint of unfair governing of the Peak of Good Living, then perhaps Money magazine was shortsighted in listing Apex among its Best Places to Live in 2010.
I attended the Coucil meeting last night in order to voice my objection to removing this portion of the BCBS coverage for women employees in Apex. You are so right that this is totally a political agenda regardless of what the councilmen state. Councilman Eugene Schulze was very vocal about his personal opinion on abortion. Since there is NO reduction in the cost of the premium with or without the elective abortion coverage (where does using tax dollars come in) it shows that these men (no women or minorities on council) have decided that women employed by Apex obviously do not have the sense to decide for themselves what course of action to take with an unplanned pregnancy. It was also pointed out by Mayor Weatherly that the Federal Government doesn't provide this coverage to it's employees and that it was time Apex caught up. I actually choose to see Apex as being ahead of the curve by providing this coverage. Again a political view. I stopped by this morning and got a copy of the towns BCBS insurance coverage from Town Manager, Bruce Radford, in case there's something in there that I object to using my tax dollars to cover. Evidently an objection is all it takes to reduce the employees coverage.
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