[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Stupak"]
[/caption]If you're like me, you may have been feeling at excited that we were finally getting somewhere on health care coverage. Then, the House passed the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. In case you haven't had time to read up on just why this amendment is horrible, here's a brief primer on what it will do:The Hyde amendment requires that no federal funding go for abortions, under health care reform, this already would have included the public option plan, which most people were expecting and which everyone had agreed to.The new Stupak-Pitts amendment bans private for-profit insurers from covering abortion as a part of women's reproductive healthcare for all plans in the insurance exchange created by the healthcare bill, even if women pay most of the premiums. That would mean a drastic reduction in the coverage that millions of women already have.If a version of this amendment makes it into the Senate bill, it will most likely remain in the final bill and may get signed into law. If this happens, it will be the most dramatic reduction in women's reproductive health care we've seen in decades.Please do the following:
[/caption]If you're like me, you may have been feeling at excited that we were finally getting somewhere on health care coverage. Then, the House passed the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. In case you haven't had time to read up on just why this amendment is horrible, here's a brief primer on what it will do:The Hyde amendment requires that no federal funding go for abortions, under health care reform, this already would have included the public option plan, which most people were expecting and which everyone had agreed to.The new Stupak-Pitts amendment bans private for-profit insurers from covering abortion as a part of women's reproductive healthcare for all plans in the insurance exchange created by the healthcare bill, even if women pay most of the premiums. That would mean a drastic reduction in the coverage that millions of women already have.If a version of this amendment makes it into the Senate bill, it will most likely remain in the final bill and may get signed into law. If this happens, it will be the most dramatic reduction in women's reproductive health care we've seen in decades.Please do the following:- Call your senators. Tell them that you do not support any amendment like Stupak-Pitts.
- Find out how your House representative voted on Stupak-Pitts. If they voted no, call them to say thank you. If they voted yes, (especially if they are a democrat), call them and tell them how much you disagree with their vote.
- Sign a petition to Harry Reid not to allow any anti-choice amendments into the bill.
- Send a coat-hanger to the 20 pro-choice Democrats (all men, might I add) who voted for Stupak-Pitts
- Join a phone bank at NARAL from your home
