In order to further their efforts to pass the most sweeping domestic policy in more than forty years, House Democrats set back reproductive rights at least that far by allowing an anti-choice amendment to their health care bill last weekend. If young people felt removed from the health care debate before, now is the time to start paying attention.
The Stupak Amendment, which bars anyone receiving federal health care subsidies from purchasing a private health insurance plan that provides elective abortions and bars any public plan from offering abortion coverage as currently prohibited by federal law, was necessary to get conservative Democrats to vote for the health care bill.
Only 64 Democrats — about a quarter of House Democrats — joined Republicans in voting for the amendment, named after Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Michigan). But its passage was assured once Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed the amendment to come up for a vote. Pelosi joined the archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Francis George, in ensuring the passage of the measure and the entire health care bill. George had to call the Republican Minority Leader, John Boehner, to make sure Republicans would not play any tricks with the amendment by voting against it so that the whole package would fail.
Pelosi deserves praise, or at least a generous helping of respect and awe, for her finesse in making sure the House passed health care. The speaker so often lambasted as a San Francisco liberal showed her roots as the daughter of an old-school Baltimore pol in corralling her party and doing what needed to be done.
But this dangerous policy is now closer to becoming law. On Monday, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised an abortion ban of some kind would be in the Senate’s health care bill. If that happens, it will be much harder to remove the provisions when the House and Senate bills are later merged into one for a final vote.
Even Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, refused to say whether the purportedly pro-choice President Obama would oppose the amendment.
Pro-choice senators still have a chance to stop this unnecessary ban that will do far-reaching harm to women. Congress banned federal funding for abortions decades ago. In 1976, the Hyde Amendment banned funding from appropriations in the Health and Human Services budget. The problem is that under a public health insurance plan, and with public subsidies being used for low-income people to buy private health insurance, it would be hard to delineate where public money is going.
The Hyde Amendment has harmed low-income women for decades. The Stupak Amendment will prevent women of any income range from purchasing health insurance that covers abortions. Insurance policies that cover abortions will be kept out of an insurance exchange, which means companies will stop covering the procedure or women will have to buy supplemental insurance for abortions.
America needs more affordable and accessible health insurance. Reform has been put on hold for too long, but swapping abortion rights for greater access to health insurance is perilous trade.
Pro-choice Democrats must stop the Stupak Amendment. There are plenty of senators, elected by pro-choice voters and pro-choice dollars, who can stop it from being included in the Senate’s bill. If it is included, House Democrats and the president need to step up and defend reproductive rights. And if they don’t, young people need to remember it when these politicians stand for re-election.
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