Taxpayer-funded abortion could rear its head at the Wake County Commissioners? meeting this Monday, but chairman Tony Gurley says he?ll rule any motion aimed at getting the funding back into the county?s employee health insurance plan out of order.
Commissioners were deadlocked Feb. 15 over the question of whether to ratify a decision by county staff to remove the coverage. Wake?s original plan covered elective abortions ? those considered unnecessary for medical reasons ? into the second trimester of pregnancy. Once staff found out about it, they removed the coverage out of concern that it ran afoul of a 1981 N.C. Supreme Court decision.
That move elicited the ire of liberal commissioners. Since the commission is tied 3-3 on the issue, the determination by staff stands. Commissioners could make a motion to put the elective abortion funding back in the county?s plan, but so far they haven?t given any indication they might.
County attorney Scott Warren confirmed this afternoon that Monday?s agenda does not have the abortion issue on it, though a commissioner could bring it up during the meeting. Gurley promised to rule it out of order, though.
?If anyone on our board wants to have an agenda item for abortion, they need to let us know ahead of time and it needs to be on the agenda as a separate item,? he said.
A call and e-mail to Lindy Brown ? a commissioner who voted against the motion to ratify county staff?s decision to nix the funding ? was not returned.
