Posts Tagged ‘Stam’

By now, you’ve likely heard about the Apex Town Council’s January 19^th decision to strip abortion coverage from their town employees’ health plan.

What you may not have heard about was their follow up meeting last week.

The Apex vote in January was unanimous because Mayor Keith Weatherly presented it as settled legal matter. (Check out our previous post for background on Mayor Weatherly.)

Of course, the truth came out immediately following the vote.  Within days, lawyers from the ACLU, the NC League of Municipalities and the NC Association of County Commissioners all issued statements or opinions defending a county or town’s authority to determine which benefits are appropriate for their employees.

As soon as Apex Town Council Member Bill Jensen found out the issue was driven by politics rather than settled law, he called on the Apex Town Council to take it up again. Last week at their February meeting, Councilman Jensen moved to have abortion coverage placed on the agenda. The lone Democrat couldn’t get a second to his motion. Not a single other Apex Town Council member had the courage to debate the merits of taking comprehensive healthcare coverage away from town employees.  

During the meeting, Mayor Weatherly admitted publicly that Apex has the authority to provide abortion coverage to its employees. He also admitted it was a moral issue rather than a legal one.

The truth is the Apex decision was purely political.

Mayor Keith Weatherly is the legislative assistant to NC Representative Paul Stam who filed the original court case being trotted out as the rationale for denying women reproductive health coverage.

Back in the late 80s when Stam first served in the NC House, he was referred to as the “prince of pelvic politics” because of his relentless crusade against reproductive freedom.

When Mayor Weatherly told the Town Council this was a legal decision, he must have known he had the backing of Apex Town Attorney Hank Fordham–Paul Stam’s law partner.

It would be bad enough if the small town politics of Apex were confined to Apex. But since the Apex vote, several counties have moved to deny their employees abortion coverage because they fell for the settled law ruse.

It’s hard to believe its 2010 when an all-male town council led by a politically-connected mayor can deny thousands of women reproductive health coverage and get away with it. It’s hard to believe but it’s happening right here in North Carolina.  Please help us fight back.

At the very least the elected leaders who are stripping coverage should get their stories straight on why they thought it appropriate to force their personal belief systems on the rest of us at the detriment of their female employees.

As coverage from Cary News points out, the issue was initially cast by Weatherly as one that would protect the taxpayer from lawsuits.  But, after the decision was passed, Mayor Weatherly proclaimed, “The issue is the protection of the unborn.”  

But wait, didn’t you tell us that it was about protecting the town from lawsuits? The N&O quotes Wake County Board of Commissioners chair, Tony Gurley spoke on this theme saying, “As soon as we were made aware it [abortion coverage] was illegal, we stopped doing it.”

Except that it’s not. Turns out the only legal precedent that statement is founded on is a case brought by Representative Paul Stam in Stam vs. State of NC.  Also turns out, the 1991 precedent does NOT apply in this case as it does not address health insurance coverage.

The bottom line here is that city and county employees deserve full insurance coverage and that council members don’t get to decide who has access to legal medical procedures based on their political agendas.

Are city councilpersons and county commisioners elected as morality police?  You might think so if you’re following the news out of Wake County.

Last month’s decision by the Apex Town Council to strip abortion coverage from their town employee’s insurance coverage was initiated by Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly.  Mayor Weatherly, as noted in a previous post, works as a legislative assistant to Representative Paul Stam, a longtime crusader against a woman’s right to make child-bearing decisions.

The Apex abortion coverage ban triggered the Wake County Commissioners to consider stripping abortion coverage from county employees’ benefits. That proposal was added to the Commissioners’ agenda for their February 15 meeting… That is, until today.

The News and Observer reports that Wake County has followed Apex’s lead in cherry picking what health insurance benefits they deem “acceptable” and what they do not.

In case you were wondering, Wake County Government leaders determined that abortion coverage (which is covered by more than 80% of private insurance plans) falls into the latter category and, therefore, is out. The change has already been made administratively by the County Manager

It was just that simple. No public comment. Not a single vote on the matter. Is this our democracy at work? Now our local government is stepping into the role of “morality police”? Is this what anyone elected their County Commissioner or Town Council member to do?

Wake County residents: tell your Commissioners that you are outraged that the decision to cut comprehensive employee health coverage was brought about with no public comment and that you are strongly opposed to the change.

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?