As a longtime proponent of health care reform, I truly wish that the National Organization for Women could join in celebrating the historic passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It pains me to have to stand against what many see as a major achievement. But feminist, progressive principles are in direct conflict with many of the compromises built into and tacked onto this legislation.
Today the White House announced that it has set March 18 as the deadline for Congress to pass a final health care reform bill. President Obama has embraced the Senate’s version of health care legislation. This bill is no panacea for the nation’s broken health care system. It has major flaws that probably cannot be fixed within two weeks. However, the National Organization for Women is not about to give up — not with women’s basic human rights at stake.
NOW President Terry O’Neill said, “President Obama’s State of the Union speech was never expected to be a policy address about women’s rights, but women were keenly listening to every line — and paying close attention to the messages between the lines, or left unsaid altogether.”
The U.S. Senate sent a last-minute holiday “gift” which half the country will find difficult to accept. In a disappointing move that sets women’s reproductive rights back, the U.S. Senate voted on final passage of its version of health care reform. Last weekend Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sealed the 60th vote by caving into Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-Neb.) demands with a “compromise” that would eventually do away with private as well as public insurance coverage for abortion care. This dangerous provision not only further stigmatizes abortion care but it makes it nearly impossible for any health plans to offer comprehensive coverage.
NOW President Terry O’Neill calls on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to refuse to make any deals to appease Ben Nelson or the Catholic Bishops or anyone else seeking to turn the health care bill into an anti-abortion vehicle.
Tell the Senate to vote No on the SAVE America Act.