President Obama just signed landmark health care reform into law, and while there is much to celebrate, there is also a lot to be concerned about. As health care reform becomes law today, Women’s Media Center posts a statement by WMC founder and board member Gloria Steinem, encouraging us to funnel our outrage into action:
“It’s healthy to celebrate partial victories, but fatal to pretend they’re complete. Health Care Reform will save health and lives, but its price was affirming and extending the control of women’s bodies by church and state. The result restricts reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right, and the right of every child to be born loved and wanted. One healthy use of anger would be writing a check and otherwise supporting the campaigns of Connie Saltonstall who is running against Stupak in Michigan and Lois Herr who is opposing Pitts in Pennsylvania — two Congressmen who took dictation from the Catholic Bishops, even though nuns and the majority of Catholics disagreed. Stupak and Pitts are the kind of guys this country’s founders came here to escape. We can also get rid of the Hyde Amendment, which is not settled law but just a restriction attached to each budget to punish poor women dependent on government-funded health care. Congress can overturn it. After all, anger is an energy cell and depression is anger turned inward — which is why it’s a culturally female disease. For us especially, activism is a form of healthcare in itself.”
Jen Nedeau wrote a piece for the Women’s Media Center yesterday on how women have been shortchanged in many ways, and as we noted in our statement yesterday, “We cannot ignore the fact this bill was passed only after a pro choice President appeased a gang of anti-choice legislators by agreeing to sign an Executive Order restating the Hyde Amendment – a longstanding and shameful provision which bars low-income women from accessing reproductive health care.”
That said, we celebrate the many benefits for women and families. Jodi Jacobson at RH Reality Check has a list of wins and losses, and American Association of Birth Centers has a list of benefits which includes:
- C-sections, giving birth and domestic violence can no longer be considered pre-existing conditions and used to deny insurance coverage
- Guaranteed coverage for pregnancy
- Workplace protection for nursing women
- Guaranteed insurance coverage of mammograms for women
- Screening for postpartum depression
- A range of other preventative services such as screening for diabetes and heart disease
We want to hear from you!! What is your response to health care reform? What are pros and cons, and equally important – next steps?
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21 Comments
This is a well-stated remark from Ms. Steinem — The truth is, in order to pass the healthcare legislation, access to reproductive healthcare – a component of overall healthcare – will be denied to low income women, the population which, ironically, is most likely to be unable to support an unwanted child – which means that that forced pregnancy will cost the taxpayers immensely in the coming decades.
I am furious that Obama campaigned on passing the Freedom of Choice Act and then issued this Executive Order in support of Hyde!! I’m glad Stupak didn’t make it in, but until Hyde is rescinded and the Freedom of Choice Act passed, women’s reproductive rights are in jeopardy, especially for low-income women.
Thanks –I think this is a really balanced and fair position on the recent passage of health care reform. We should absolutely celebrate all of the advances this new law makes as far as access to affordable health care for women AND men.
However, the fact that the kicker was ultimately the issue of access to abortion really shows where women’s reproductive rights lie on the priority scale. And that’s not good. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, the numbers speak for themselves, and the reality is that safe abortion is an extremely important thing to be able to have access to (ie be able to pay for if youre poor). The idea of taking away access for some women (because some women will simply not have the ability to pay out of pocket) is really frightening to me as far as safety of women and women’s choices about their bodies, and as far as our government’s discrimination against certain citizens based on how much money they have.
And thanks to Ms. Steinem for her practical suggestions
It’s great to hear from one of our mothers of feminism on this issue. Gloria is right! Health care reform should not be at our expense. Repeal Hyde forever! Defeat Stupak and Pitts! And most of all, stay active for your own health and sanity and for the rights of your sisters.
I appreciate Gloria’s comments. I was losing sight of the work that needs to be done to get rid of these restrictions on abortion. Thanks for the suggestion. I intend to send my money I to Connie Saltonstall and Lois Herr. I am angry but not defeated! Thank you.
Gloria’s call to real, effective action is exactly what women need to hear in the wake of this very conditional victory. And pushing to repeal Hyde is a cause that many more self-respecting pro-choice activists must get behind. If we cannot provide reproductive health to the women who (often) need it most, what are abortion rights truly worth?
As a mother, I have been pleasantly surprised by the stream of benefits that are going to be coming our way in regards to maternity and infant care, including more support and reimbursement for midwives and birth centers and support for mothers who breastfeed and return to work. But you are right – the victory is conditional when it comes to reproductive health and that’s simply not okay. Thanks for the suggestion to support Lois Herr – I’m a PA resident and I think I will!!
I am definitely happy about the passage of health care reform (and all the great , but very disappointed that the reproductive rights of low-income women took the hit for it all. Young women, like myself, tend to assume that the fight for women’s rights are done — but clearly we have some work to do.
I am also glad healthcare reform passed, but I do take issue with the abortion argument, not in and of itself, but that so many people made it the front-and-center issue regarding healthcare for women. Without trying to step on anyone’s toes, I do believe there are issues of greater importance in this legislation, and yes it was a matter of priority as one reader noted.
Women have the right to choose. That is a fair law, but it is specifically based on the right to privacy and how the government (state and federal) cannot intervene. That being said, *I* believe that the government, in turn, is not obligated to PAY for abortion services except if a woman’s life is in danger or if she didn’t have a choice to begin with (rape). Privacy excludes government interference and control; in turn, it seems they have every right to not pay for something they have no jurisdiction over. Now I am not a lawyer, but if my logic is correct, I would say this – just because people have the right to purchase things in this country that are legally for sale (obviously abortion services are one of them), it cannot be said that that automatically means the government foots the bill for somebody who cannot afford it. Withholding of public money is not an imposition on the EXERCISE of people’s rights.
I also take issue with abortion being defined as a health issue in each and every circumstance. Supporters and non-supporters KNOW that is not the case, whether readily admitted or not. Not every choice an individual makes with his or her own body has to do with HEALTH. Sure there is the argument that unplanned pregnancy will stifle personal development and goals, but that doesn’t mean that those consequences are to be designated as a health problem.
All that being said, I don’t think Obama’s exercutive order changes anything for the worse, despite what some may fear. Stupak’s language is omitted from the bill, and so it appears that only Hyde remains in place.
Gloria has been right for decades. Where are the activists we used to have to enact the vision she always states so beautifully? Have women really been coopted by progress? We compromise too much, we accept too little as the status quo. We have forgotten that we are half the population. Women’s rights ARE human rights, and control of our bodies is fundamental to women’s rights. So politicians can’t be ‘good on everything but choice.’ We can’t allow politicians to keep selling us out.
Each day the hear talks of health care reforms and each day we hear poor people complaining of how unfair the reform is because they don’t seem to benefit from it because it’s difficult for them to pass the healthcare legislation. How will this one be different?
I’m so happy with all that president Obama is doing to improve our health care. We might not agree with all he’s doing, but i’m happy for his constant concern.
I am also a PA resident and I’m ashamed to admit that I had no idea there was such a large problem coming from right here inside my very area!! Thank you for posting the info on Lois Herr vs Pitts! I intend on writing an article for other PA residents on the specific issues at hand regarding the opposing sides because of your article.
These healthcare reforms are wonderful. All women and men who have supported and fought for this legislation are finally seeing the results of their hard work, time, and effort. Our grandmothers could not have imagined have it as good as we *American* women have it now!
However, I find the reproductive rights issue very disturbing. I cannot imagine that there are still so many people out there who think they have a right to govern a woman’s womb, but evidently there are still more I thought! There is clearly so much more work to be done. These reproductive stipulations and thinly-veiled punishments for women who need to USE those “reproductive rights” need to end immediately.
I’m concerned about what I have been hearing today where certain insurance companies (in Florida I believe) are no longer going to carry child only coverage plans due to this law.
am happy of what President obama is doing to American people
Thanks for writing about this. You’ve got a bunch of really good information here on your website. i definitely back again again. all the best.
I really get upset when I am told that Congress will try to repeal Roe v Wade. I am 60 years old and fought for reproductive rights all my life. I think that it is insulting to the power that women wield in this country. Do we think that women are so powerless that we would allow this to happen? We would never allow this. I will protect reproductive right with my life. I had an illegal, back alley abortion in 1970, which left me infected and infertile.
Unless you were alive back then, it might be hard for you to understand. BUT, women will never allow the good ol’boys network to take away our reproductive rights. If they try, who among us will fight with our lives?
Thank you for taking the chance to deliver this topic. I like your point of view on this matter.
Roberta Neilan: lady, you are amazing. I am passionate about a women’s right to complete autonomy over her own body. No one (and ESPECIALLY no male) should ever feel that they have the right to take that freedom away.
That appears decent though i’m still not so certain that I like it. In any case will look further into it and decide for myself!
Honestly, looking at all the new laws being fought into legislation, I’m beginning to worry that women are being punished just for having sex.
Please, please please correct me if I make an untrue statement, but……..
didn’t planned parenthood’s funding get snatched away, to ensure that “no tax dollars would ever fund abortion” when a law had already been in place for thirty years to MAKE SURE that it never happened in the first place, and federal dollars have NEVER supplied abortions anyway? That means that money usually used to buy birth control methods for women who couldn’t afford it was taken away by congress, correct? Therefore many women lost the ability to proactively protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy.
In addition, with so many states attempting to outlaw abortion, where are the women who were snubbed out of protection going to go? To back alleys to put their lives in jeopardy with illegal abortions…… a danger that NO WOMAN should ever have to fall to.
And ON TOP OF THAT Georgia legislature wants to begin investigating miscarriages and arrest women who cannot “prove” that their miscarriages were accidental.
Why is it that women are being punished and bullied just for being sexual beings and having their rights to their own bodies and their own futures taken away and handed to congress?
Once again, please correct me if I’m wrong, and I’d absolutely love to hear any opposing arguments, but it just seems that all of these laws being passed through have begun to fit together, and I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed it as well.