Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, is expected to introduce a Stupak-like amendment on Monday, 12/9/09, banning abortion coverage from any health care reform-even in insurance coverage that now provides it. Nelson’s amendment will closely mirror the language of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was added to the House health reform bill under last-minute pressure from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment targets middle and lower income women in the same way that the Hyde Amendment does poor women. If it becomes law it will effectively wipe out insurance coverage for abortion in any general fund even if a woman uses her private dollars to pay for the plan.

Senate leadership has devised a strategy of calling for a vote on a motion to table the Nelson amendment. This will require 50 votes. Leadership has identified a series of targeted Senators who need to be called this weekend to urge them to vote for the motion to table the Nelson amendment. If your Senator is one of these, PLEASE CALL HIS/HER WASHINGTON OFFICE THIS WEEKEND!

TARGETED SENATORS: Prior (D-AR), Bayh (D-IN), Dorgan, D-ND, Conrad (D-ND), Byrd (D-WV), Kaufman (D-DE), Landrieu (D-Louisiana), Casey (D-PA) and Kirk (D-MA).

You can reach them through the Capitol switchboard — 202-224-3141.

If these are NOT your Senators, call your Senators’ offices and ask them to pressure these Senators to vote to table the Nelson amendment.

New York’s Senators are Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand.
For Senator Schumer:
http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm
Telephone: 202-228-3027
Fax: 202-224-0420

For Senator Gillibrand:
http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/
Telephone: 202-224-4451
Fax: 202:228-0282
We must stop these efforts to hobble what is otherwise an historic step toward quality, affordable health care for all!

If you don’t know who or where to call or email? Visit http://www.senate.gov/.

**Special thanks to Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need

The Current Situation

On Wednesday, November 18th, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Reid introduced his health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is a proposal that works to merge the Senate HELP and Finance Committees’ proposed health reform bills.

On Saturday, November 21st, the Senate Democrats voted to allow the bill to come to the floor for debate. (All 60 Democrats voted to allow debate; no Republicans voted to permit discussion.)

Right after Thanksgiving break, the Senate will begin debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This is when we will all have to become especially vigilant!

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The good news is that as far as abortion rights is concerned, it does not include the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.

In response to cries from anti-choice Democrats, the bill is very specific about the accounting guidelines for the segregation of public and private funds to ensure that no federal money would be used to pay for abortion care. Insurers would be allowed to offer abortion coverage to women in the exchange, including women who choose the public option if the Secretary of HHS ensures that federal money is not being used to pay for the services. The proposed bill also confirms that states would be allowed to pay for abortion services on their own, if the federal government decided not to include those services in the public option.

HOWEVER, in order to save money for the government (not women), the Senate HELP bill that guaranteed women access to family planning services without any extra charges was dropped from the merged bill

States would be allowed the option of covering family planning through Medicaid more easily. Further, other preventive health services and screenings would be covered and exempt from deductibles and co-payment requirements in both public and private insurance plans.

The plan also proposes to do away with gender rating which allowed the insurance industry to charge women more than men for the same coverage. It also would put an end to refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions like breast cancer, domestic violence and cesarean section deliveries and imposing lifetime limits on benefits.

Unfortunately, the plan would not put an end to the insurance industry’s practice of charging older people more than younger individuals. The House bill restricted the age rating price difference to 2:1 while the proposed Senate bill price difference is 3:1.

Feel Good About Ourselves But Not Comfortable
With your help, Choice Matters along with Raising Women’s Voices and other women’s health advocacy groups responded quickly and loudly when the House passed the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. We told Senator Reid not to adopt that amendment or anything like it.

Choice Matters joined the New York Alliance for Women’s Health, a statewide coalition of more than 55 women’s health organizations, to tell Senator Reid not to turn health reform into a political football by including anti-abortion Stupak language.

People for the American Way and other national groups delivered anti-Stupak petitions to Senator Reid’s office with more than 97,000 signatures

Groups not directly involved with reproductive rights expressed outrage. Health Care for All New York sent a letter to Senator Reid on the Stupak language. Health Care for America NOW! and American Public Health Association spoke out against the Stupak language.

A National Day of Action in Washington DC is being planned for December 2nd. Buses are being organized. If you need information, email us: ChoiceMatters@ChoiceMatters.org

*Special thanks to Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need

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.)

Senator Reid is expected to introduce a health care reform bill this week in the Senate. We must demand that it be Stupak-Pitts Free.

STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO HELP*
# 1 Sign the attached letters to President Obama and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand telling them health care must be Stupak-Pitts free!
Click here to sign the letter to President Obama
Click here to sign the letter to Senators Schumer and Gillibrand

#2 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

# 3 Write Letters to the Editor of our local newspaper. Express your outrage at the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and call on the Senate and the President to keep new abortion restrictions out of health care reform.
Here is a sample: Get Religion Out of Health Care Reform http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/112212246342opinionguestcolumns11-11-09.htm
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

#4 Pressure Stupak’s money sources
Here is a list of major PACs that contributed to Bart Stupak’s last election. If you’re a customer, tell the company you are outraged that their officers and employees contributed to Stupak’s re-election. Tell them you are considering withholding your business if they continue to support him. http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/11/07/call-bart-stupaks-donor-pacs-and-tell-them-theyre-paying-for-his-anti-abortion-activism/

#5 Thank the local New York House representatives (Congressmen Engel, Weiner and Hall, and Congresswomen Lowey and Slaughter) who stood with us and voted against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. Tell them they to vote against any bill that includes Stupak-Pitts language. http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#ny

In the Senate, our outrage is producing small signs of progress. Already, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has spoken out on the Senate floor and at a press conference to express our concerns. Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas also voiced opposition to any further erosion of abortion coverage when she said that the House amendment goes too far by prohibiting what private plans can offer. We need to thank them!
For Senator Gillibrand: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/
For Senator Lincoln: http://lincoln.senate.gov/contact/

What Happened and What is the Stupak-Pitts Amendment?

On Saturday, November 7, 2009, the House of Representatives betrayed women by passing a Health Care Bill that included the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. This was in direct response to pressures exerted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops who threatened to kill health care reform if the amendment was not included.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment bans any abortion coverage completely from the insurance exchanges that would be established by health reform to provide affordable health coverage. This includes both the private plans in the exchange and the so-called “public option,” which would be the government-run alternative to costly private insurance plans. Even women buying insurance with their own private money will not be able to get a plan that covers abortion. Instead, they will have to buy a separate abortion “rider” to the plan at an extra cost.

This dangerous amendment undermines the ability of millions of women to purchase private health insurance that covers abortion, even if women pay for all or most of the premiums with their own money. This amendment reaches much further than the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited public funding of abortion in most instances since 1977.

*Special thanks to Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need

Read in detail at Salon.com Broadsheet

1. Abortion is legal medical care.

2. Abortion is common, mainstream medical care. It is one of the most common surgical procedures in America.

3. Abortion is already broadly covered. Between 50 and 85 percent of women who have private insurance, including employer-sponsored plans, have coverage for abortion care.

4. Covering abortion does not raise the abortion rate.

5. Covering abortion makes abortion safer. Out of pocket, abortion can be expensive, all the more so as the pregnancy progresses. Yet women who take time to “save up” only wind up paying more — and taking more risk.

6. Covering abortion is what the people want. According to a recent poll by the Mellman Group, voters oppose reform that would prohibit insurance companies from covering abortion.

7. Excluding abortion from coverage sends us down a slippery “moral” slope.

8. Let’s have insurance companies hold an annual poll of subscribers and decide on a majority basis what gets covered. Let’s especially ask if they want their premiums to pay for obesity-related diseases, smoking-related diseases, STDs, neonatal intensive care where the life expectancy is less than 5 percent and put a cap on care for people over 80.

9. Without coverage, there is no “choice.” Sex — a natural human drive for most — entails risks. Even with the best prevention measures, there will be unintended pregnancies.

10. Megan Carpentier, former Jezebel writer and current editor of News and Politics of Air America Radio, sums it up thusly: “Why should abortion be covered? Because sometimes abortion is medically necessary, and the government shouldn’t be writing regulations from Washington that tell a woman in Kansas when that is. Because exempting cases of rape and incest, as the Hyde Amendment does, means that women who are victims of rape and incest don’t get the coverage they’re supposed to have anyway, because there’s no way to police whether their pregnancies are the result of government-approved circumstances. Because there’s no actual government money that’s going to get spent on the so-called public option, so it’s a question of whether you, with your own money, can get insurance that covers what you choose to have it cover. And because eliminating coverage that currently exists through federal law is just another back-door way for the antiabortion movement to make it more difficult and expensive for women to get a legal medical procedure, since they can’t convince women not to have abortions on the ‘merits’ of their arguments.”

Just last week Maria Shriver released, surprise, The Shriver Report. The report claims to be a portrait of today’s American Woman. The report is titled A Woman’s Nation. To pump up attention for the report, California’s First Lady has been making the rounds of the networks. This morning she was on CNN.

The portrait that Shriver paints is not the America I know or that in which most of the women I encounter live. It is sure not the America of the women who are most in need of a reform of health care that does away with gender ratings and age ratings. (Read more at: Raising Women’s Voices.)

Take the time to read the op-ed by Joanne Lipman that appeared in The New York Times, October 24, 2009, The Mismeasure of Woman. Meet the real lives of real American women.