Congress made a little bit of history last night when the House passed a comprehensive health care reform bill. The vote was closer than I’d like to see, but it creates significant momentum towards final passage. And abortion, not the public option, proved to be the issue that almost killed the bill in the end. The resulting compromise is terrible public policy motivated by the worst kind of paternalistic sexism. It prohibits lower-income women from accessing abortion services on the exchanges to be created under the bill, including private insurance policies. Of course, women of means will still be able to get abortions without any restrictions.
I understand that the pro-life movement has deep feelings on this issue, but their actions in this most recent debate demonstrate a really distasteful form of classism. Federal law already restricts women on Medicaid from receiving abortions, but this provision extends that prohibition to private insurers. As a society, we seem to have a fondness for complicating the lives of people in poverty as much as possible.
Final negotiations between the House and Senate may result in a less draconian provision, but I’m not optimistic. Overall, this is still a really good bill and it will help millions of people. Those of us who believe in abortion rights may just have to increase our donations to Planned Parenthood.
