Who Does Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly Really Represent?
Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly claims to have received a call from a citizen who told him that abortion care was covered in the town’s health plan. According to WRAL’s highly sensationalistic coverage, Mayor Weatherly said he didn’t believe it was true until he looked into it.
Maybe this is exactly how it happened. Maybe. But it’s interesting that no mention was made of the fact that Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly works as a legislative assistant for none other than Republican Minority Leader Paul Stam–a longtime crusader against a woman’s right to make childbearing decisions. Just google “Paul Stam abortion” to see a sample of how long Stam has been trying to stop a woman’s right to choose.
Perhaps it’s purely coincidental that Rep. Stam’s most recent Twitter entries reveal he was hard at work trying to ensure that abortion coverage was excluded from national health care reform.
It’s possible that Rep. Stam never discussed abortion and healthcare coverage with his legislative aid, Mayor Keith Weatherly.
But if the NC House Minority Leader Paul Stam was at all involved in this decision, even as citizen Paul Stam, wouldn’t WRAL have told us? Wouldn’t other Apex citizens, particularly town employees whose health benefits were cut want to know?
So here’s a question, and I’m sure someone’s thought of this…isn’t there a way to challenge this stuff based not on the legality of abortion but on straight up equality grounds? Since women are theoretically a protected category (I thought of this while following the Prop 8 trials). i.e., challenge the courts to find one instance of a legal medical procedure which is not included in men’s health insurance or is restricted? It’s tough because there isn’t an exact analogy for men, but as you point out, there could be some equivalents.