NOTES ON WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Following are notes I made a few years ago when the Stupak Amendment was being debated in Congress.  I have made only a couple of modifications to these, and am prompted to post them here in response to current legislation before Congress, HR 7, No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure.

As such, it should be eligible for insurance coverage just as is any other legal medical procedure.

The same voices that warn about government interference with health care decisions would deny coverage for abortion.

The same voices that claim government would be deciding who would be covered, and what procedures would be covered, would deny coverage for abortion.

The same voices that decry government controlling or regulating insurance companies would deny private insurance companies, about 85% of which previously provided coverage for abortion, the right to provide abortion coverage in their policies if they participate in the exchange.

The same voices that say that people morally opposed to abortion should not have to pay taxes to cover abortion, do not say that people who are morally opposed to war should not have to pay taxes to cover war.

To deny a woman coverage for abortion is tantamount to the private insurance industry denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, or denying claims for services they don’t consider needful or appropriate.

Because woman is unique, she has unique medical needs.  It is discriminatory to deny her the right to make her own decisions about those needs.  It is even more egregiously discriminatory to deny coverage of this procedure to the poor, but not to the rich, who can easily pay for the procedure if they lack insurance.

Allowing insurance coverage for abortions is hardly equivalent to the government, or taxpayer dollars, funding abortions, because the insured will be paying premiums for this insurance, with only some of them requiring subsidies for partial payment of premiums.

The government does not exist to make moral judgments about private decisions.  Yet that is what they do if they deny insurance coverage for abortion.  The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution says it well:  “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

All of the Republicans and many of the Democrats who voted for the Stupak Amendment voted against the health reform bill anyway.   

What a price women have to pay for progress.