A House committee is considering a bill that would remove abortion coverage from most insurance policies and require Kansas residents to purchase extra coverage for the procedure.

Supporters of the bill told the House Insurance Committee on Thursday they believe most Kansas residents find abortion morally offensive and don’t want to pay insurance premiums for the procedure.

The committee’s vice chairman, Republican Rep. Virgil Peck of Tyro, said the bill would require women to purchase a rider from their insurer for elective abortions.

Insurance policies could still cover abortion if a pregnancy endangered a woman’s life or resulted from incest or rape.

“I’ve had this bill mentioned to me as being pro-life and pro-choice,” Peck said.

Jeanne Gawdun, lobbyist for Kansans for Life, said several other states, including Oklahoma and Missouri, have such provisions in their laws. Kansas law prohibits tax dollars from paying for abortions for women covered by the state employee health plan.

“The current situation of automatically covering abortion has infuriated many individuals, including private businesses that do not want to include this for their employees,” Gawdun said.

The committee took no action and plans to work the bill next week.

Opponents said the bill would restrict a woman’s ability to get an abortion, saying it lacks language that allows the procedure when a woman’s health, not just her life, is at risk as determined by a physician.

“I would say that I think this is bad public policy,” said Sarah Gillooly, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

A victim’s rights advocate said the provision could make it difficult for rape or incest victims because they are less likely to file a police report, which would be required to claim that exemption under the law.

Gillooly told the story of her sister who was forced to induce labor early after her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition known as Turner’s Syndrome where a female fetus lacks all or part of the second X chromosome.

She said her sister would have been affected by the insurance coverage rule should it become law because it was technically an abortion and the woman’s health wasn’t at stake.

“Creating a separate rider system will effectively eliminate all insurance coverage for abortion care in Kansas, even in circumstances of the health of the mother and tragic fetal indications, which I have no doubt is the intended, though unspoken, goal of this legislation,” Gillooly said.

Kari Ann Rinker, lobbyist for the Kansas chapter of the National Organization for Women, says the bill could open the door to state mandates for all types of activities that some people find objectionable, such as obesity or smoking.

Rep. Steve Brunk, a Bel Aire Republican, said government places mandates on business all the time. However, he said smoking and obesity were individual choices that don’t directly affect another life like abortion.