The following summarizes recent actions related to abortion-rights issues in three states.

~ North Carolina: The Wake County, N.C., Board of Commissioners on Thursday announced that the health plan for county employees will no longer pay for elective abortion procedures, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. County officials claim that a 29-year-old state Supreme Court ruling makes it illegal to use public money to pay for the coverage. The health plan, which has covered elective abortions for employees since at least 1999, will continue to pay for the procedure in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman. State House Minority Leader Paul Stam (R), a staunch abortion-rights opponent, said he called Board Chair Tony Gurley to tell him that the county was violating the law by offering the coverage and that he would take legal action if the coverage was not removed. Stam was the plaintiff in the state Supreme Court case three decades ago. Opponents of the move said that the board has exceeded the scope of the court's ruling and that the original lawsuit dealt with funding for "medically unnecessary" abortions for indigent women. Legal analysts with the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of North Carolina studied city and county insurance rights in North Carolina and said that state statutes allow local governments to offer abortion coverage. Melissa Reed, vice president of public policy for PPNC, said that county employees "deserve to have comprehensive health coverage," adding that "it shouldn't be taken away because of somebody's political agenda" (Goldsmith et al., Raleigh News & Observer, 2/12).

~ Ohio: Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish (D) is reneging on an earlier decision to prohibit House floor honors for a 19-year-old state resident who won a National Right to Life oratory contest, the AP/Dayton Daily News reports. Budish said his original decision was based on concern that the award -- which was to be presented Feb. 3 -- came from a "politically sensitive" group. The decision drew criticisms from Republicans, abortion-rights opponents and the ACLU. A spokesperson for Budish said he changed his mind to correct mistaken impressions that he was denying the award because of the teen's position on abortion rights. His office said it is working to have a resolution presented to the teen sometime next week (AP/Dayton Daily News, 2/11).

~ Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday approved three abortion-related measures and delayed action on a fourth for possible consideration this week, the AP/KFSM reports. The bills would prohibit abortion based on the gender of the fetus, approve protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in the provision of abortion services, and address the use of mifepristone (AP/KFSM, 2/11). According to the text of the mifepristone bill (SB 1902), the measure would require physicians to explain to patient if they are using FDA's prescribing regimen for the drug or an "evidence-based regimen, and, if using an evidence-based regimen, specifying that the regimen differs from the [FDA] regimen and provid[e] detailed information on the evidence-based regimen being used." The bill also would mandate the prescribing physician to be in the room when mifepristone is administered. It includes several other provisions related to follow-up visits, reporting of adverse events and the ability of family members to bring lawsuits against the physician (Bill text, 2/1). According to the AP/KFSM, all of the measures were initially included in omnibus bills to impose restrictions on abortion which were approved during previous sessions. However, separate court cases threw out those bills after they were found to violate a constitutional provision requiring laws to deal with a single subject (AP/KFSM, 2/11).

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