Update: Right to Life expects fast track for abortion insurance proposal, but leadership undecided

LANSING, MI -- A proposal seeking to prohibit insurers from including abortion coverage as a standard feature in health plans could be headed to the Michigan Legislature early next month.

The Michigan Secretary of State's office confirmed Monday evening that a deadline has passed without any public challenge to more than 315,000 signatures turned in last month by Right to Life of Michigan.

The Bureau of Elections analyzed a sample and concluded that at an estimated 299,941 signatures are valid, far more than the 258,088 needed to advance the measure.

CITIZENS INITIATIVE

How it's done:

"In order to exercise the right to initiate legislation (initiative), a citizen or group must secure, on petitions, the signatures of registered electors in an amount not less than 8 percent of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last gubernatorial election."

What the Legislature can do:

"…The legislature has 40 days from the time it receives the petition to enact or reject the proposed law or to propose a different measure on the same question. If not enacted, the original initiative proposal and any different measure passed by the legislature must go before the voters as a ballot proposal."

How often it's happened:

"...There have been five instances of the legislature approving initiatives proposed by the citizens, which eliminated the need for the measures to go before voters. These citizen-initiated and legislature approved acts were 1964 PA 2, 1987 PA 59, 1990 PA 211, 2004 PA 135, and 2006 PA 325."

Source: 2009-10 Michigan Manual

The Board of State Canvassers is expected to meet next Monday to consider the petitions. Certification would send the proposal to the Legislature, which would have up to 40 days to vote it into law or allow voters to decide on the 2014 statewide ballot.

If approved by the House and Senate, the citizen-initiated bill could not be vetoed by Gov. Rick Snyder. The first-term Republican rejected a similar measure last year on the grounds that it would have applied to private insurers and did not include exceptions for rape or incest.

Under the proposal, women who want abortion coverage as part of their insurance policy could still purchase it via a separate rider. Employers who decide to offer plans with abortion coverage would be required to notify all employees of that decision.

Right to Life of Michigan, which has had success with other citizen-initiated legislation in the past, has promoted the measure as a means to ensure that taxpayer-subsidized health plans offered under the Affordable Care Act do not include abortion coverage.

Critics, such as Planned Parenthood of Michigan, point out the bill would apply to all insurance policies -- not just those offered on the Obamacare exchange -- and are urging lawmakers to let voters decide in 2014.

Republican legislative leaders have not yet confirmed whether they'll take up the bill, but Right to Life of Michigan has said that many lawmakers signed the petition after approving the measure last year. Democrats have promised opposition.

Results of a recent statewide poll released last week by the Lambert, Edwards & Associates bipartisan public relations firm indicated that 47 percent of respondents opposed the abortion insurance proposal. Forty-one percent said they supported it, while 13 percent were undecided.

Update: Right to Life expects fast track for abortion insurance proposal, but leadership undecided

Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter.