Delaware could become the 18th state to direct Medicaid to pay for abortion services and the 5th state to require state-regulated private health plans to do the same.

In April, House Majority Leader Melissa Minor Brown’s (D-New Castle) legislation requiring Medicaid to cover termination of pregnancies cleared the House Appropriations Committee.

She has since substituted that bill with a new version requiring all health benefit plans delivered or issued for Medicaid, private health insurance plans and state employee insurance plans to cover abortion in Delaware.

The bill requires that patients seeking pregnancy termination are not subject to any deductible, copayment or coinsurance up to the $750 coverage maximum.

The bill outlines an exception for religious employers if the coverage requirement “conflicts with the religious organization’s bona fide religious beliefs and practices,” but exclusions are not applicable for termination of pregnancies that are necessary to preserve the life or health of a covered individual.

House Minority Whip Lyndon Yearick (R-Magnolia) joined several of his colleagues in arguing the state does not mandate insurance providers to cover or provide the same cost-share exemptions to other elected health services.

“The requirement to mandate that every entity must provide this elective service and no questions asked unless they’re a faith based institution — I’m disappointed in that. I’m sure there’s very few elective services that we require other companies through their healthcare to provide,” Yearick said.

“I think that it is unfair to force taxpayers who are opposed to this procedure to have to pay for that procedure,” State Rep. Charles Postles (R-Milford) added.

Republicans went on to argue this requirement would only add to the state’s ballooning healthcare spending, noting the bill carries roughly a $500,000 annual fiscal note.

But Minor Brown said there will be back-end cost saving measures, saying women denied abortion services often lacked the means to cover basic living expenses years following the denial and saw lowered credit scores, increased debt and negative public financial records.

“When you deny a person access to essential healthcare — look at the impact after that. So the woman who’s utilizing Medicaid, and now you’re not allowing her that right to choose because you don’t want to pay for it. But you’d rather her stay on Medicaid, continue utilizing state resources and maybe even with the extra person or two, which — to me — costs more. So just make it make sense,” Minor Brown said.

State Rep. Valerie Jones Giltner (R-Georgetown) argued the state doesn’t have the resources to provide this type of coverage, especially by eliminating any cost-share mechanisms.

“We make tough decisions as legislators as far as making sure that Medicaid is available to many throughout the state. And we’re not blocking access to an abortion — that’s already widely available. We’re not even blocking partial payment of it,” Jones Giltner said. “What we’re saying is that to say that there should be no deductible, no copayment, no anything for anybody that gets an abortion, even if they have private insurance — a private payer — is not sound judgement.”

Minor Brown stuck firm in saying providing for preventative measures would ultimately save the state more money.

“We don’t have the money to pay for the after effects when we don’t provide care to people and access to healthcare to people. It’s more expensive on the other end,” Minor Brown responded.

The bill passed with only two Republican representatives defecting and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Two of the victims were listed as stable and one was in critical but stable condition, Gretzky said.

Officials said Rosado-Ruiz had a dispute with one of his female co-workers and she became his first victim. After arguing with her, he stepped outside, made a phone call and returned to shoot her. He then walked around the building firing his weapon at other coworkers, fatally shooting brothers Leovanny Peña and Giguenson Peña.

Rosado-Ruiz then tried to exit the building and noticed the female co-worker, his first victim, and shot at her again, but either missed or ran out of ammunition. He then escaped in his vehicle, a black Scion. Police officers from nearby Trainor spotted his car and arrested him within minutes. Rosado-Ruiz didn’t try to pull out his gun, officials said.

Gretzky said his officers arrived to a “very chaotic scene.” One of the deceased victims had collapsed near the entrance of the building.

“First responders encountered another victim who was shot multiple times — and I have to commend my officers, because they put a tourniquet on the male and then in the laundry area, they put him in a laundry bin and they wheeled him outside to get him to better medical assistance,” Gretzky said.

Stollsteimer said Rosado-Ruiz didn’t have a criminal history. He has been an employee at the business since 2016.

“My understanding is that he has been complained about by other employees of the business,” Stollsteimer said. “I believe there was a meeting of employees with the owner of the business the day before. This was not unusual that he was having a verbal altercation or verbal problem with one of the employees.”

Stollsteimer couldn’t comment on reports Rosado-Ruiz openly carried a weapon at work.

“This is a continuing investigation. As more information comes to light, it will flush out that story for us,” Stollsteimer said.

The mass shooting at the 2600 block of West Fourth Street brought Chester to a halt. The regularly scheduled City Council meeting ended early in the aftermath of the crisis.

Delaware County Linen reopened for business Thursday.

Surf-fishermen hoping to drive onto the beach at Cape Henlopen State Park via Navy Crossing are out of luck this Memorial Day weekend.

Though typically available to those with reservations, “the beach is too narrow, leaving insufficient space for vehicles,” a Cape Henlopen State Park Facebook post announcing Navy Crossing’s closure to vehicles said. The beach remains accessible by foot.

“We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we prioritize safety,” the post said.

On summer weekends and holidays, Delaware’s drive-on beaches require reservations, which can be made at delawarestatepark.reserveamerica.com.

As of Wednesday evening, all Cape Henlopen beaches were booked for Memorial Day weekend, as was Delaware Seashore State Park’s 3R’s beach. Beach Plum Island, Fenwick Island State Park and Delaware Seashore State Park’s Keybox/Conquest/Faithful Steward beaches still had reservations available.

Reservations for Monday (Memorial Day) will become available at 11 a.m. Thursday.

More: Everything you need to know about surf fishing at the Delaware beaches this summer

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.