Alaska governor vetoes expanded contraceptive use as judge lowers abortion limits

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – In a race for progress on reproductive rights in the nation’s largest state, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy blocked a veto of a bill to expand access to birth control, while a judge overturned decades-old restrictions on who could get abortions.

The Republican governor’s veto on Wednesday dismayed supporters of the measure because it would have forced insurers to cover up to a year’s supply of birth control at a time, seen as especially important for providing access in remote rural communities.

The bill passed the state legislature this year overwhelmingly: 29-11 in the Republican-controlled House and 16-3 in the bipartisan Senate. Insurance companies didn’t object to that, proponents noted.

But in an emailed statement, Dunleavy spokesman Jeff Turner said he vetoed it because “contraceptives are widely available and forcing insurance companies to offer mandatory coverage for a year is bad policy.”

Supporters of the bill said the veto would keep in place barriers that make it difficult to get birth control in much of the state, including villages accessible only by plane and Alaska patients on Medicaid, which limits the supply of birth control pills to one. month at a time.

“Governor Dunleavy’s veto of HB 17 after eight years of tireless effort, overwhelming community support and positive cooperation with insurance companies is deeply disappointing,” said Democratic Rep. Ashley Carrick, the bill’s sponsor. “There is simply no good reason to veto a law that would ensure every Alaskan has access to essential medications, such as birth control.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Alaska Supreme Court Justice Josie Garton ruled unconstitutional a state law requiring only a doctor licensed by the state medical board to perform an abortion in Alaska. Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky challenged the law in 2019, saying advanced practice doctors — which include advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants — should also be allowed to perform medication or aspiration abortions.

Such clinicians already perform procedures that are “comparably or more complex” than medical abortion or aspiration, such as delivering babies and removing and inserting IUDs, according to the suit. Those care providers help fill a void in the largely rural state, where some communities lack regular access to doctors, according to the group’s lawsuit.

In 2021, Garton granted the group’s request to allow progressive doctors to offer medical abortion pending his decision in the underlying case.

The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the right to privacy under the state constitution to include abortion rights.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Garton said the law violates patients’ privacy and equal protection rights by burdening their ability to obtain an abortion and the rights of clinicians qualified to perform the procedure. The restrictions disproportionately affect those with low incomes, inflexible work schedules or limited means of transportation, the judge noted.

“There is … no medical reason why abortion should be regulated more strictly than any other reproductive health care,” such as medical treatment for miscarriage, Garton wrote.

Women, especially in rural Alaska, have to fly to larger cities like Anchorage, Juneau or even Seattle for abortion care because of the limited number of doctors in the state who can provide the service, or sometimes women wait weeks before they can see a doctor with their case.

The judge concluded that there was no reliable statistical evidence that the law would affect patients’ ability to obtain an abortion on time. But, he wrote, the question was whether it increased barriers to treatment, and it did.

Assistant Attorney General Chris Robison said in an emailed statement that the state is reviewing the decision.

“The statute was enacted to ensure medical safety, and these types of sentences are more appropriate in the legislative or executive branches of government,” Robison said.

Advanced doctors can provide abortion care in about 20 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In two of those states – New Mexico and Rhode Island – treatment is limited to medical abortions. In California, certain conditions must be met, such as a clinician providing care during the first trimester, under a physician’s supervision and after training, according to the organization.

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Johnson reports from Seattle.