President Obama is meeting with Democrats and Republicans on February 25th to work out a health care plan.

The President  released his own health care proposal on February 23rd and IT INCLUDES THE NELSON AMENDMENT!

Very soon, the House and Senate bills will be combined into a single bill—probably through reconciliation* which requires only 51 votes—and then it goes to the President to be signed into law. 

The stark reality is that both the President’s proposal, which includes the Senate’s Nelson Amendment, and the House and Senate bills, as they now stand, will result in greater restrictions to access to abortion than any federal law.

The Nelson amendment in the Senate bill and the President’s proposal, and the Stupak amendment in the House bill will both take away any insurance coverage for abortion that women can now obtain.

We must demand that the Stupak and Nelson amendments both be dropped from any bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the President!

Together we must stop health care reform from becoming a tool in the hands of the anti-choice forces.

 TAKE ACTION 

1.*Click Here to Send a letter to the President, your Senators and your Representatives.

2.*Call your Senators today (1-877-264-4226), your Representative (1-202-224-3121) AND the President 1-202-456-1111).

Tell them, “This is not the health reform we were promised.”

Tell them, “A health care bill that sets back women’s health coverage by restricting or denying access to abortion coverage is not reform!”

Tell them, “All health care bills must be Stupak/Nelson Free!”

Tell them, in closing, “I vote and I will remember!”

For  New York:                                                                                  
Senator Schumer
Telephone: 202-228-3027
Fax: 202-224-0420
http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm

Senator Gillibrand
Telephone: 202-224-4451
Fax: 202-228-0282
http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

For the New York House of Representatives Delegation: 
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#ny                                                                                                                                                                  

 #3 Call or write an e-mail to President Obama telling him that health care reform isn’t reform if women lose the coverage they currently can have for abortion. For example, simple say or write:

“President Obama, you are on record saying that if we liked the health insurance we have, we could keep it. Tell Congress you meant it! Anti-choice extremists and religious zealots should not decide health insurance practices. We are not bargaining chips to mollify the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and anti-choice zealots in Congress who are committed to destroying our reproductive health!”
Click here to email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
Or call: Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414

# 4 Write Letters to the Editor of our local newspaper. Express your outrage at the Stupak and Nelson Amendments and call on Congress and the President to keep new abortion restrictions out of health care reform.
Some Local Newspapers:
The New York Times email to letters@nytimes.com
The Wall Street Journal email to wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
The Journal News http://www.nyjnews.com/contact/letters.php3 or email to letters@thejournalnews.com
The Scarsdale Enquirer email to LLeavitt@ScarsdaleNews.com

(*Reconciliation is a legislative process introduced in 1974 which is intended to allow consideration of a contentious budget bill without the threat of filibuster. Reconciliation bills have special Senate protection and are allowed to pass by simple majority votes, after limited debate.)