H.R. 7 – A Broad Attack on Insurance Coverage and Abortion Funding

On Jan, 22, 1973, women celebrated the momentous decision in which they were given control of their reproductive health. Thursday, on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, women were struck with disappointment when the House passed H.R. 7, the No Taxpayer-Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, a definite and wide-ranging attack on women’s reproductive rights.stop-hr7

H.R. 7 would make the 1976 Hyde Amendment part of the U.S. code, prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion care except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the woman’s life.  If the No Taxpayer-Funding for Abortion Act were to become law, Hyde would not have to be passed by Congress each year as it has been for decades.  Over those years, the Hyde Amendment has disadvantaged Medicaid beneficiaries, low-income women who depend upon the program for their reproductive health care and who have had to find funds from other sources to pay for abortions.(Often this has delayed their obtaining their abortions until further into pregnancy.)  Because Medicaid is financed by a federal-state match, there are some states that permit abortions for Medicaid beneficiaries by using the state-funded component. The Medicaid program is by far the single largest program providing reproductive health care services to low-income women.

In reporting on the last minute withdrawal of another bill, The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act – H.R. 36, which would ban abortions at the 20th week of a pregnancy and beyond, the press suggested that H.R. 7 was a “watered-down” version or a less objectionable one. Sad to say, that H.R. 7 is a sweeping piece of legislation that would not only prohibit the use of public funds for low-resource women to obtain abortions, it would expand other prohibitions on the abortion care affecting wide swath of even private insurance plans and many millions of women.

As noted, it permanently blocks abortion coverage for low-income women, and would block coverage for civil servants, D.C. residents, military women, Peace Corps volunteers and many others who receive health care and insurance cover through the federal government. It does this by incorporating and re-codifying numerous prohibitions that reside elsewhere in the U.S. Code.

And, as not everyone may know, the District of Columbia is forbidden to use local funds to pay for abortion care – a truly counter-productive and mean-spirited prohibition which Congress has imposed.

Other aspects of this harmful legislation, as reported by NARAL Pro-Choice America follow.

H.R. 7 reaches far into the nation’s health care system to impose tax penalties on small businesses that choose private health plans that cover abortion care, with the goal of driving consumers away from these plans. Right now, 87 percent of private plans cover abortion services.

The legislation bans coverage of abortion services for women insured by multi-state health plans under the Affordable Care Act—private health insurance plans which offer consumers a uniform array of health benefits in every state in which they operate.

H.R. 7 revives the failed Stupak-Pitts amendment to the Affordable Care Act, effectively banning abortion coverage in policies purchased through the ACA health exchanges, and even in instances where women use their own private funds to pay for their insurance. ACA experts say that this threatens the availability of private insurance coverage for abortion for all women in private health plans nationwide.

The No Taxpayer-Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act passed the House by a vote of 242 to 179, on a near party line vote. The scheduling of this exercise was planned as a gift to the thousands of anti-abortion rights demonstrators who came to Washington on the Roe anniversary – most of them Catholic high school students bussed in for the event.

However, H.R. 7 is probably DOA when moving to the Senate as democrats will likely threaten a filibuster and for which there are not the 60 votes to overcome. The Obama administration expressed its opposition early Thursday to H.R. 7 in a Statement of Administration Policy, strongly suggesting that the President would veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.

NOW’s position on H.R. 7 and other related attacks is that abortion is a common, safe and legal medical procedure that is relied upon by a majority of women who have this procedure at some point during their reproductive years.

As NOW’s President Terry O’Neill says, “Abortion is basic health care.”

It needs to be treated like any other medical procedure and included for coverage under all insurance plans, especially those purchased through the Affordable Care Act’s State Health Exchanges and the federally-facilitated Exchanges.

4 responses to “H.R. 7 – A Broad Attack on Insurance Coverage and Abortion Funding

  1. Please protect women’s rights to make personal decisions about what is right for their situation. We need to be certain that each child is wanted and has the financial and other support that is needed. Let’s not bring children in to the world if we are not ready to support them. No more abused, abandoned children as they have a birth right to be brought into the proper environment. No more throw away children.

  2. However, it should be acknowledged that causality cannot be drawn from such research and additional analysis is critical to raised explore this detrimental avenue of
    AAS use on well being. The detrimental effects of those
    seemingly small increases in blood stress should not be underestimated.
    While it’s onerous to estimate their impact on CVD danger, one may attempt to quantify it by wanting at the – well-researched – effects of blood pressure-lowering medication.
    Each 10 mmHg discount in systolic blood strain reduces the chance of major cardiovascular occasions, coronary coronary heart illness,
    stroke, coronary heart failure, and all-cause mortality
    by 20%, 17%, 27%, 28%, and 13%, respectively (95).

    One draw back to the water loss on Winstrol, in our experience, is much less muscle fullness as a
    end result of decreased glycogen and intracellular fluid contained in the muscle cells.
    Winstrol is taken into account a seashore physique steroid, with it rapidly lowering a user’s physique fats
    proportion while additionally possessing diuretic effects (due to an absence of aromatization).
    Testosterone sure to SHBG becomes inactivated; thus, the less SHBG,
    the upper the free testosterone levels shall be.
    Winstrol (stanozolol) is the second most generally used oral steroid (after Dianabol) and is predominantly used as a
    slicing agent. Testosterone is probably certainly one of the most secure
    steroids in our expertise, and it remains FDA-approved right now for the remedy of hypogonadism.

    With oral testosterone, 20 grams of dietary fat must
    be consumed with every dose for max absorption.
    Anavar solely produces reasonable increases in lean mass;
    hence, why it’s used for chopping. Its capacity to burn subcutaneous fat is surpassed by few steroids as a outcome
    of its profound effect on T3 (triiodothyronine) ranges.
    Regardless Of not being probably the most ‘powerful’ anabolic steroid,
    we nonetheless see testosterone producing
    spectacular features in size and strength. The anabolic-to-androgenic ratio varies between different sorts of AAS, which
    can have an result on antagonistic reactions as well.

    Girls with classical anorexia or bulimia hardly ever use testosterone,
    however in those whose body-image pathology shifts toward muscularity
    or “fitness tradition,” AAS use emerges as a
    danger. Muscle dysmorphia (“reverse anorexia”) is recognized
    as a subtype of body dysmorphic dysfunction (BDD), with
    a well-documented association with AAS use in men and women. Anabolic steroids increase
    dopamine launch within the brain’s nucleus accumbens, akin to how cocaine or
    amphetamines work, though subtler.
    This hormone increases muscle measurement and strength, and a testosterone-only cycle is often the first step taken by
    a model new steroid user. You may be acquainted with males who
    will do anything to avoid the development of gynecomastia when utilizing steroids on account of high estrogen ranges.
    But… When it involves feminine PED use, it’s the discount in breast measurement that you need to concentrate on as a aspect impact.

    In Accordance to NIDA, an estimated 9% of secondary schools have drug testing packages for illicit drugs and
    less than 4% of excessive colleges in the Usa test their athletes for anabolic steroids.

    Even if such testing was more widespread, analysis
    has but to obviously decide if drug testing is
    efficient in decreasing drug use. According to the National Institute
    on Drug Abuse, many of the information the company has gathered about the long-term effects of anabolic steroids has
    been obtained from case stories and not from formal epidemiological studies.

    Most of the research conducted on long-term steroid results thus far has been carried
    out with animal research.
    Anabolic steroids can be addictive for some users due to larger
    ranges of endorphins and enhanced physique composition throughout a
    cycle. Post-cycle, we now have observed muscle atrophy (shrinkage) in bodybuilders, which may trigger dependence in some customers.

    Nevertheless, such reductions are sometimes gentle in contrast to different anabolic steroids.

    In terms of its advantages and adverse results, we find Winstrol to be barely
    stronger than Anavar. Thus, on Winstrol, we observe customers constructing somewhat extra muscle while experiencing
    harsher side effects. Due To This Fact, novices don’t sometimes cycle Winstrol,
    as it might possibly trigger excessive ranges of hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity.
    Deca Durabolin’s weak androgenic nature, when combined with high prolactin levels, can contribute
    to cases of erectile dysfunction.
    It begins to become possible to use HCG all through
    a cycle of this length, but most guys is not going to need or want to use it for thus long and as a substitute use HCG in the course
    of the end of the cycle. However that’s just one side of the story… The big consideration with
    these normal cycles is making progress over an extended interval
    – years if that’s your objective. Every cycle ought to
    take you ahead, not having you backtrack to make up for misplaced gains.
    By enhancing the effectivity of how your physique makes
    use of vitamins from meals (mostly carbs, proteins, and fats), every calorie you take in is used to its full potential.

    References:

    PedsElite

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

CLOSE
CLOSE