Women will reject a health plan that puts special interests first

[toymachines]

Women will reject a health plan that puts special interests first
By Darrah DiGiorgio Johnson, SDNN

In January 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution protects the right of a woman to choose whether to continue a pregnancy to term or to have an abortion.

Yet, 37 years later, almost to the day, we face the remarkable possibility that the Congress will enact health care reform legislation that singles out abortion from all other medical procedures, with unprecedented and unnecessary restrictions. Indeed, these restrictions threaten not only to prevent women who will gain access to health insurance from obtaining abortion coverage, but could also result in women losing abortion coverage they currently have.

Anti-choice organizations and lawmakers still aim to overturn Roe v. Wade, but in the absence of their ability to do that right now, they are working tirelessly to enact restrictive laws and regulations that result in additional barriers to women seeking health care. In that vein, anti-choice legislators have succeeded in the House of Representatives in passing the most dangerous obstacle to abortion care in decades — the Stupak abortion amendment.

In effect, the Stupak amendment, if enacted, would be a ban on private health insurance coverage for abortion for millions of women, many of whom pay for their insurance themselves with their own money. This marks an unprecedented departure from existing federal law affecting individuals who pay for their own health insurance.

Because the majority of private health insurance plans already offer abortion coverage, the House bill will actually cause women to lose insurance coverage that they currently have.

Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-01-19/blog/a-more-perfect-union/johnson-women-will-reject-a-health-plan-that-puts-special-interests-first#ixzz0d5jIDOX0

[Demeter]

1. The STUPID Amendment

adds insult to injury. Kill the Bill!

[emsimon33]

2. I hope that someone with a soul runs against Stupak so he will be defeated

the next time he runs! With this amendment, he is a murderer!