SB49, the bill that defines what a "medically necessary" abortion is when a doctor is seeking payment for the procedure from Medicaid, is currently in the House Rules Committee awaiting a final vote on the floor any day now. We are confident we have the necessary 21 votes to pass this sensible policy but we need to remain vigilant.

Legislators need to know that we are watching and waiting for them to make the right decision in support of this common sense measure that simply requires physicians to describe why they are determining that a procedure is medically necessary. Medicaid has never paid for elective procedures and yet physicians in the State of Alaska have been more than likely committing medicaid fraud regarding abortion.

National studies show that less than 5% of all abortions are typically related to the health of the mother and yet nearly 40% of abortions in Alaska are being classified as "medically necessary". This bill tightens the screws on abortionists who are now claiming that an abortion is "medically necessary" simply because the patient is going through Medicaid to get it paid for.  

Click HERE for a new and useful tool on the Alaska State Legislature website that allows you to type in your address and quickly identify your State Representative. Alaska Family Action urges citizens to contact your House Representative right away and ask them to support passage of SB49 on the House Floor.

For a detailed AFA Policy Briefing on why SB49 is good public policy, click HERE.

Some legislators, wanting to derail the bill, are attempting to add an amendment to SB49 that would create a new "family planning" program in Alaska.  AFA OPPOSES this amendment for a number of reasons including - 

• We've spent more than $7,000,000 on "family planning" in Alaska in the last 10 years under Federal Title X funds and general state funds for public health clinics. Contraception is now more readily available today than in any other time in our State's history.  Click HERE for a graphical, factual display of "family planning" in Alaska.

• Funds brought into the State from Federal sources through this amendment would very likely end up in the hands of the largest abortion provider in Alaska - Planned Parenthood. Everyone knows it's then a shell game of accounting that frees up other revenue sources for Planned Parenthood to do what they do best - end the life of pre-born children.

• If someone wishes to make the case that we need yet another government bureaucracy to pass out free contraceptives, then it deserves to be carefully evaluated as a separate bill, or as an amendment to the operating budget. It does NOT belong as part of SB 49, which is a simple bill to clarify the meaning of the term “medically necessary” in the context of abortion.

Again, please click HERE to quickly find your House Representative and send them a short, polite reminder that you're counting on them to support SB49 without any amendments.  Do your part and we'll have victory in the House so we can move this bill on to the Senate and eventually on to Governor Parnell's desk for his signature.