Health care must not be held hostage
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By JUDY BEVANS - Published: November 24, 2009
ost Americans want – and need – health care reform. Most Americans want and need a public option (note the word "option," as in "having a choice") to be part of that reform plan.
Now that we are so close to making this huge stride in helping businesses and individuals afford healthcare, we must not be halted mid-step by the polarizing issue of abortion. The Stupak-Pitts amendment to HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, threatens to do just that.
Coming in at just four pages, the Stupak-Pitts amendment goes much further than the infamous Hyde Amendment of 1976, which banned federal subsidies for abortions. This new amendment bans insurance companies that participate in the proposed federally regulated insurance exchange from offering women – even women buying insurance privately from those companies – coverage for abortion.
To comply with the House bill's amended language, either the companies will opt not to participate in the insurance exchange, or they will drop all coverage of abortions, even from plans not offered on the exchange.
Because abortion has been a legal procedure for nearly 37 years, young women in particular may not realize how big a threat this restrictive provision is to their wellbeing. Under Stupak-Pitts, access to abortion services would surely be curtailed, causing a return to the dark days of back alleys and coat hangers, women dying from lack of care. Any amendment that restricts access to a legal procedure for half the population will cause deaths and injuries in its return to two-tiered citizenship. That's a far cry from healthcare for all, and overturns one of the reform effort's promises – that no one will lose the benefits they already have.
We must have healthcare reform, and we must not allow anti-choice activists to hold health care reform hostage to their narrow agenda. We must not allow the erosion of the rights we fought so hard for – for women to control our own bodies and to make medical decisions in privacy with our doctors.
It is up to all of us, men and women, who support both healthcare and women's equality to get energized to make sure that the Stupak-Pitts language is not included in the Senate health care reform bill. And when that reform bill passes the Senate, we must make absolutely certain that the restrictive language is removed from the final bill in conference committee.
We applaud Rep. Peter Welch's principled vote against the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the House. We also have two strong voices for Vermont values in the Senate who support a woman's right to choose and who will fight any attempt to add restrictions in the Senate health care bill.
Make a call or send an e-mail thanking Sens. Leahy and Sanders and supporting their efforts to convince their Senate colleagues of the dangers of such backward-looking law for the lives of women and the families who love them.
To do otherwise is to allow a small group of anti-choicers to endanger the health of tens of millions of Americans who happen to be female. We can't let them sacrifice our lives and our rights.
Judy Bevans is the chairwoman of the Vermont Democratic Party, and a resident of Albany.
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