Bottom line: women win with reform

March 23rd, 2010 by Maggie Skelton

MAGGIE SKELTON / THE EAGLE BLOGS NETWORK

NOW is ‘incensed.’ NARAL has ‘mixed emotions.’ And according to women’s issues blog Jezebel, “Everyone is mad.”

Normally, I am so closely aligned with these organizations you would think we were playing Follow the Leader. However, I cannot support their lack of support for the monumental health care reform to be signed into law today by President Obama.

Health care reform passed! Why all the pouty faces in the feminist corner?

These groups claim that health care was passed on the backs of women, and that poor women were thrown under the bus, but that’s just not true. Yes, abortion rights advocates (including yours truly) are incredibly disappointed with the impact this bill has on abortion access and coverage in the United States. However, for lack of a better metaphor, we cannot throw the baby out with the bath water.

Health care reform brings incredible and much needed change and improvements to the coverage of America’s women (and poor, and everyone else, but for the sake of this blog…). Here are some of the changes we should be celebrating:

Gender rating, which previously allowed insurance agencies to consider gender when setting premium rates, is prohibited; being a woman will no longer be a pre-existing condition

Denial of coverage based on a pre-existing condition, which has been known to include domestic violence, pregnancy, or cesarean delivery, is prohibited

Coverage of preventive care will be required of insurance providers (women visit health care providers more often than men for preventive care; i.e. pap smears, mammograms)

Exclusion of maternity care will be prohibited.

So yes, we lost a huge battle on abortion; I hate that, in the final hour, it was women’s rights that had to be sacrificed. But it is a mistake to say that all is lost; I still consider health care a huge victory for women. Do you?

A note on Obama’s Executive Order:

My personal opinion is that this doesn’t really do much except shut up all the anti-choicers who swear HCR will create an abortion free-for-all. Language in the Senate bill already ensures that no federal dollars will be used for federal funding so either anti-choicers don’t know how to read or they just decided not to. Either way, I gotta go with Jan Schakowski on this one: “if this will make the bill pass and it doesn’t further erode women’s reproductive rights we can live with that.”

Is health care a win for women? Or do the increased restrictions on abortion make irrelevant any and all benefits brought on by reform?

For equality,
Maggie

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

Posted in The F Word

6 Responses

1. Taylor

   March 24th, 2010 at 12:24 am

   OK Maggie, but why do you think its alright for this to be passed on the backs of women. Women are the only group who didn’t get their most important issue out of this bill, and in bill where everyone is making deals maybe it says something about how women are still treated in this government.

2. Maggie Skelton

   March 24th, 2010 at 10:09 am

   I absolutely agree with you Taylor; this ‘deal’ that was cut with Bart Stupak and other anti-choice congressmen speaks loud and clear to the way women are still viewed and treated by and within our government.I lament that this bill was passed with such restrictive abortion language. However, despite this fact, women still win; the situation for women will vastly improve as a result of this bill.

   In my opinion,the fight for abortion access had no place in the health care debate to begin with; this issue is much too contentious and controversial to add to an already heated debate and the stakes were too high. However, now that this debate is over, pro-choice and women’s health advocates can focus all of their attention on making sure abortion coverage is again made readily accessible for America’s women.

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