The Board of Trustees of the Directors Guild of America–Producer Pension and Health Plans today (7/18) approved several Health Plan amendments to expand coverage of abortion services to include dependent children and offer travel benefits for covered Health Plan participants living or working in covered employment locations where abortion services are no longer permitted.
DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter made the following statement supporting the Plans decisions: “The actions taken today by the Plans Trustees demonstrate strong and decisive leadership to ensure that our members and their dependents will continue to be able to have access to safe abortion services regardless of where they live and work. I am proud that in a time when our human rights are being challenged and so much in our nation is unclear regarding abortion rights after the devastating decision by the Supreme Court, that the DGA Plans offer clear and comprehensive abortion coverage for our members.”
The Plans trustees voted unanimously to add the following two additional benefits:
- Expanded coverage of abortion services to dependent children of Health Plan participants
- Added coverage of abortion-related travel costs for covered Health Plan participants living or working in covered employment in locations where abortion services are no longer permitted.
In addition, the Trustees reconfirmed existing coverage of both elective and medically necessary abortions and coverage of the drugs necessary to induce abortion.
“The expansion of abortion services by the Plans this morning is critical to protect the health, safety and rights of DGA members and their dependents,” said Plans chair Jay D. Roth in discussing the actions taken by the Trustees this morning. “The Guild and Management Trustees were unanimous in their decisions today, recognizing that travel coverage, and the inclusion of dependent children were vital additions to ensure coverage regardless of where members live and work.”
Details regarding the clarifications and added benefits will be communicated to Plans participants.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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