Posts Tagged ‘Stupak’

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Apex Town Council unanimously decided to eliminate insurance coverage for abortion from all town employees’ Blue Cross Blue Shield benefit plans. The change went into effect yesterday.

If you’ve been paying attention to any discussion around Health Care Reform at the federal level recently (Change Fail post), you won’t be surprised to learn that media coverage and comments from public officials have made it painfully clear that this is about far more than what benefits are or are not in a particular health insurance plan.

The politicization of women’s personal reproductive lives definitely didn’t stop with Stupak and  now we have found it at our own back door.

Media coverage of the issue thus far points very directly to the problems. WRAL’s sensationalized coverage could have you thinking the Apex employee’s health insurance plan was covering illegal drug use rather than a safe and legal medial procedure. Meanwhile, the story in the Cary News quotes Councilman Mike Jones saying very candidly that the underlying issue for him is the moral issue of abortion. (emphasis mine)

I’m not sure at what point our society decided that it was okay for one elected official’s moral beliefs to be the deciding factor in what an entire group of people (*ahem* women) can or cannot have access to. What’s next? Fertility treatment? Birth control? How about (as Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said so astutely) erectile dysfunction medication and vasectomy coverage?

The fact is that elected officials shouldn’t be able to cherry pick what reproductive health care coverage they’re okay with and what they’re not and force those decisions and the beliefs that motivated them on everyone else. Abortion care is basic reproductive health care for women and 87% of insurance plans currently cover abortion care. The reason for this is simple (allow me to repeat): Abortion is a safe and legal medical procedure. In fact, it is a procedure that one out of every three women will experience in her lifetime.

Unfortunately, politically motivated single-issue attacks like this one have a tendency to snowball and it’s looking like Wake County employees’ benefits could be up next on the chopping block when the County Commissioners meet later in the month. We know you’ll want to help so plans are in the making! Stay tuned to facebook.com/ppcnc and twitter.com/ppcnc to find out how you can be part of the campaign to protect women’s health in your community!

In the midst of holiday travels and last-minute gift buying it was easy to miss the latest devastating blow to women’s health in the US Senate. It came late the Saturday before Christmas when the “Nelson Check Provision” was added to the Senate version of the Health Care Reform bill.

You’ll remember Senator Ben Nelson (D- Nebraska) from his sponsorship of the anti-choice amendment to the Senate bill that contained the same restrictive abortion language as the Stupak Amendment in the House. Nelson’s amendment failed to pass the Senate but that did not stop him from continuing his quest to litigate abortion and restrict reproductive health care access in the Health Care Reform bill.

Nelson basically held his Democratic colleagues hostage for several weeks of December refusing to complete the 60 vote filibuster-proof majority unless restrictive and damaging abortion language was added to the health care bill. In the end, Senate leadership was forced to agree to his demands given the choice between passing a bill or not.

Nelson ended up with fiscal perks for the state of Nebraska written into the bill (the tab will be picked up by the tax-payers of the 49 other states) asa well as what he wanted all along—a provision that creates an unworkable system for women seeking to have abortion care included as part of their health care coverage.

The “Nelson Abortion Check Provision” effectively creates an abortion rider system because individuals purchasing 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. 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 not hard to envision how this will end up playing out. First, women will not choose plans that include abortion coverage because they have to pay for that coverage separately and who plans an unplanned pregnancy? Second, the complicated system the Nelson provision puts in place will create such an administrative burden for insurances that it is likely that many of them will stop offering abortion coverage at all.

So where does this leave us? The Nelson provision goes way beyond any restrictions in the current insurance marketplace today and imposes significant obstacles for women attempting to access comprehensive reproductive health care coverage.

Due to the unworkable and system set up by the Nelson provision and the fact that the Stupak Amendment that passed in House bill is even more restrictive of abortion coverage, Planned Parenthood has been forced to oppose the Health Care Reform bill currently under consideration.

In spite of all the blows women’s health has taken over the past two months, there is still hope that Congressional leaders can find a more workable compromise in the final bill that will come out of conference committee early next year. Please contact Senator Kay Hagan at (202) 224-6342 and ask her to let Senate leadership know that she does NOT want restrictive abortion language in the final bill and that she will vote for reform without it included. While you’re at it, contact your US Congress member and deliver the same message! You can find out who represents you by entering your zip code here: http://www.house.gov/zip/ZIP2Rep.html

The day was a long one but very rewarding. The group of NC activists met with Congressmen Butterfield, Price, and Kissell. A contingency of brave activists even took on a drop-by meeting at Senator Burr’s office! Our activists also had the opportunity to take part in a noon rally that included 14 members of Congress who spoke. The rally grew so large that a group of 200 people had to be moved into an overflow room!

The day also included a very important meeting with Congressman Etheridge’s staff who represents part of Fayetteville and voted in favor of the Stupak amendment. We had six of the Congressman’s constituents in the room at this meeting all who shared their perspectives and stories in a very moving and poignant way.

Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood citizen lobbyists meet with Senator Kay Hagan

Throughout the day there was a remarkable energy that could be felt on Capitol Hill. Everywhere you turned, there was a group of people wearing their hot pink t-shirts and Stop Stupak stickers. Our group was especially rewarded by the comments we received from security guards, cafeteria staff, and professional lobbyists who recognized our cause us and thanked us for our efforts.

We finished off the day with an exciting meeting of all 40 North Carolinians with Senator Kay Hagan. We were fortunate to also be joined by PPFA President, Cecile Richards. Both Cecile and Senator Hagan lauded NC’s amazing turnout on the Hill and Senator Hagan reaffirmed her commitment to protect women’s health care services in the health care reform debate.

Health care reform is about expanding access to health care—not taking coverage away.    Our CEO, Janet Colm, had an oped “Healthcare reform without abortion coverage is unfair”  published in the Durham Herald.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Stupak Ban is not about public funding for abortion. It’s certainly not about improving health care for women or any other group. It is about undermining women’s reproductive health care options in order to push a broader anti-choice agenda.

We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the Stupak Amendment does not make it into the final bill. But we can’t do it without your help.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

SIGN THE PETITION
If there has ever been a petition to sign, this is the one. Please sign Planned Parenthood’s petition asking President Obama, Majority Leader Reid, and Speaker Pelosi to make sure that this insidious amendment does not make it into the final health care reform bill.

When you’re done signing, please use the “tell-a-friend tool” to ask 10 of your friends to join you in signing.

FACEBOOK
Donate your facebook status to the cause. Use the following message:

Health care reform is about expanding access to health care—not taking coverage away. If you agree, please join me in signing the petition to make sure that the Stupak Amendment does not make it into the final health care reform bill. Then copy this message and donate your status to the cause. http://tinyurl.com/ykco9zo
 

TWITTER
Share this post on twitter. Use the following message:

I’m doing my part to STOP STUPAK—are you? http://tinyurl.com/ykco9zo
 #stopstupak

Thank you for your support.

Check out this excellent video put together by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota.

With as much press as its gotten lately, I’m sure that most of you are probably familiar with the Stupak Amendment, the attachment to the House’s health care bill that would severely limit a woman’s right to choose.  If you want some of the history or explination, feel free to click here or here for Planned Parenthood’s analysis, or check out the links Mitchell posted in a previous blog entry.

I am, however, extraordinarily frustrated with the amendment, and not just because of the obvious reasons. Yes, it’s probably fairly clear that I am pro-choice and am, therefore, against limiting a woman’s access to abortion services, which this bill does in spades. And yes, I am concerned that insurance companies will use this amendment, should it become part of the final bill, to imposes restrictions on covering other services, including miscarriages (which, as this article points out, are referred to by medical professionals as “spontaneous abortions”).

But what bothers me most of all is that I just don’t understand why this is happening. As the president himself said, this is supposed to be a health care bill… not an abortion one. And the fact that this has suddenly morphed from a debate that needs to happen (i.e. the horrible state of health care in this country, especially compared to other comparable nations) into something strictly about reproductive rights. And here’s the thing: I don’t see any real way for reproductive rights to win this one, now that the bill has passed the House.

Should the Senate pass its health care bill (which is an “if,” especially if the threatened filibuster by Joe Lieberman actually occurs) and not include a version of the Studak Amendment (which is another “if,” as at least one senator is now talking about including some version of it), the bill has to go to a conference committee… and, at this point, various pro-choice Democrats in the House have said they will not vote for this bill out of conference committee if the language remains (which is probably about the same number of conservative Democrats who wouldn’t vote for the bill if the language is taken out).

In either event, of course, this would effectively kill any health care reform that may happen.

So it seems that we’ve been forced into making a horrible choice… we can either sacrifice the first real step this country has taken towards health care reform in many, many years (we can debate whether or not the change is far enough, but that’s an argument for another day)… or we can sacrifice accessibility to abortion services for women who might need it. And the people who are going to make this decision won’t be affected by it in the least. Why did the House Democratic leadership let this happen? And, other than his middle of the road statements in the above link, where is President Obama on all of this? Where is the advocate that we were promised? (A question I seem to be asking of Obama a lot lately.)

Whether this whole thing started because of personal beliefs or political grandstanding is up for debate. But it seems clear to me that there’s a very good possibility that it’s going to end in a way that’s going to be detrimental to a lot of women. And what are we going to have to show for it? Legislation that expands access to insurance, yet limits its services? That’s not the change that I want. And it’s not the change that we deserve.

A friend said this morning, ” I never thought I’d be this disappointed that healthcare reform was passed.”  I quickly chimed in with a me too followed closely by a slew of mutual friends.

I’m really, really angry that healthcare reform is being carried forward at the expense of women’s civil liberties.  I’m really angry that the Catholic Church played a role in our government- where is the separation of church and state?  The Stupak ammendment bans abortion coverage from any plan that gets any government subsidy.  This is further than the Hyde Amendment and will impact many, many more women. 

Read this great blog post from Taylor Marsh at Huffington Post.   Here’s another great post, this one on feministing.com.

Leave me your comments- links to other great posts or just your thoughts.