In case you missed the bipartisan Health Care Reform Summit yesterday, coverage of the six hour event made it seem that the Summit lived down to low expectations. You have to respect President Obama for trying and at least the conversation was civil. Still, it’s pretty difficult to see room for much progress to be made. This lack of progress has never been more evident than in women’s access to reproductive health care under the proposed legislation.

We recently learned that the President has joined Congress (including Congressional allies) in putting Women’s Health at stake in the name of Health Care Reform. President Obama’s Health Care Reform proposal accepts the Nelson Check Provision which contains extremely restrictive language around abortion from the Senate version of the bill which passed that chamber back in December.

See our post on the Nelson Provision for the details but, in a nutshell, the “Nelson Abortion Check Provision” effectively creates an abortion rider system where all individuals who purchase their health care coverage will be forced to write two premiums checks—one for their abortion coverage and one for everything else. This includes coverage of any abortion that is medically necessary.

Basically, if you want abortion coverage, the Nelson provision requires you pay for it separately from all other components of your health care coverage.

It’s disheartening to see political allies bowing to the pressure of their anti-choice opponents and further stigmatizing and even denying women a safe and legal medical procedure in the process.

The fact that the Stupak Abortion Ban  from the House bill was even worse is little consolation to those of us who just want women to have access to the full range of reproductive health care regardless of any politicians personal politics or moral code. (In other disheartening news to those of us who want reform and women’s health to be protected, Minority Whip Eric Cantor says that the President’s proposal will likely have trouble passing the House due to Democrats who favor the all-out abortion ban in the proposed Health Insurance Exchange that the Stupak Ban requires.)

Insurance coverage of abortion seems to be up for debate left and right (no pun intended) these days. Taking their cue from federal elected officials, numerous counties and municipalities are considering the removal of abortion care coverage from employee health insurance plans.

In this climate, it’s easy for the public to be fooled into thinking that it’s perfectly appropriate for health care to be debated on a case-by-case, procedure-by-procedure basis. Surely we can all agree that is not only a slippery slope but also uncomfortably subjective and incredibly discriminatory.

Yet when our pro-choice local elected officials see our Congressional allies bowing under political pressure on women’s health, they start to think that it’s acceptable or even desireable for them to do the same. And this is all the opportunity anti-choice forces need to swoop in. This is indeed what seems to be happening and we’ve got to stop it.  Call the Congressional Switchboard 1-866-220-0044 to reach your Congressperson.  Call them. Call them now.  Tell them you want Health Reform that supports Women’s Access to Care.

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