So, these folks want the government to take control of their (and your, and my) healthcare. They want to give the government power over the most important and most personal choices.
An then when the government decides to use that power because of political pressure, they get upset.
The inclusion of Rep. Bart Stupak’s restrictive abortion amendment in the bill has prompted well-established abortion-rights groups to oppose the entire House bill, and it is drawing the ire of feminist bloggers and activists. Pro-abortion rights members of Congress are also attempting to derail the final passage of any bill that includes the Stupak amendment. Yet as the Democrats’ reform package teeters between success and failure — with just a few more votes needed to kill the bill — it remains to be seen whether leaders will risk stripping out the amendment, which was added to win over conservative Democrats.
The Stupak amendment passed on the House floor Saturday with the support of 64 Democrats — of whom 62 were men, liberal bloggers have been quick to point out.
The provision would prevent women who receive subsidies to purchase insurance that covers abortion — inside or outside of the proposed national health insurance exchange. It would also explicitly ban abortion coverage from the government-run plan, or “public option.” While it does not explicitly prohibit private plans on the exchange from offering abortion coverage, insurers would have little incentive to offer abortion coverage, since most customers on the exchange would pay with subsidies.
“Abortion is a matter of conscience on both sides of the debate,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). “This amendment takes away that same freedom of conscience from America’s women. It prohibits them from access to an abortion even if they pay for it with their own money. It invades women’s personal decisions.”
I hate to break this to you, but the entire bill invades women’s personal decisions. Are you really this stupid? Really?
Of course, the row does give some of us hope that nothing will pass.
Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) released the text of a letter today to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that says, “We will not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.”
The congresswomen claim to have more than 40 signatures collected for the letter so far, though the signatures have not yet been released.
Meanwhile, abortion-rights groups are stepping up to pressure President Obama and the Senate to keep the measure out of the final health care bill. The National Organization for Women held a rally at the Capitol today in opposition to the amendment and is fundraising to lobby on the issue. The group opposes the entire House health care bill because of the amendment.
“We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips millions of women of their existing access to abortion,” NOW President Terry O’Neill said in a statement. “NOW calls on the Senate to pass a health care bill that respects women’s constitutionally protected right to abortion and calls on President Obama to refuse to sign any health care bill that restricts women’s access to affordable, quality reproductive health care.”
I guess they are blind to the irony.
