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PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri this week vetoed a bill requiring health insurers in the state to extend coverage for infertility treatments to unmarried women.
In blocking the legislation, introduced earlier this year by state Rep. Edith H. Ajello, D-Providence, Gov. Carcieri, a Republican, noted that he recently passed legislation mandating infertility benefits be expanded to include women up to age 42, from 40, and redefine infertility as the inability to become pregnant within a year, compared with two years.
"This legislation, by removing the requirement that women be married, forces health insurance companies to subsidize out-of-wedlock births," Gov. Carcieri said in statement. "As a matter of public policy, the state should be encouraging the birth of children to two-parent families, not the reverse," the governor said.
Gov. Carcieri further argued that the state's health costs are already too high, and that the legislation, if passed, would worsen the problem.
Rep. Ajello could not be reached for comment.