I just knew we were going to get to this place in the health care reform debate.
Today's New York Times has a front page article on increasing efforts in Congress to remove any provisions for coverage of abortion services in health care reform. Pro-choice legislators had already agreed that abortion would NOT be in the public option (thereby once again making sure that low-income women and federal employees would not have subsidized reproductive health services), but that women who had private plans that covered such services would not lose them.
But even that's not enough for those who would really prefer to make abortion illegal but will settle for making it impossible to get.
And I'm worried that the President is going to go along with this, backing down from his commitments to be a pro-choice President. It's not enough to assure that abortion is safe, legal and rare: it also must be accessible, and that means coverage in health care.
More than a thousand religious leaders have endorsed our Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Abortion as a Moral Decision. This isn't just a public health issue; it's about assuring that women's moral agency to make their own decisions about childbearing is supported.
President Obama, please don't let us down.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Last I checked it isn't part of Medicaid now. I used to have to sort this out in the funding reports in Wisconsin to make sure Fed Funds weren't used for elective abortions. That was well over twenty years ago but as far as I know, it hasn't changed.
I agree with you!! We went to one of the Health Care Townhall meetings yesterday and the topic of abortion came up. Rep. Jack Kingston agreed with the shouter in the audience.
During the next election, I will be helping his opponent in the election campaign.
Ms. Haffner,
The last thing we need is to make abortion a more common and accepted method of contraception by making it more accessible.
You are wrong on this issue, and your liberal arrogance is showing in your articles if I may say so.
Shaman,
I have never read anything by Rev. Haffner or any other "arrogant" liberal who argues for abortion as a method of contraception. That is a completion misrepresentation of the pro-choice position. If you read the Religious Institute's statement on abortion, you would know that it argues for 1) birth control and sex education to help prevent unwanted pregnancy, and 2) respect for every woman's right to make her own decisions, based on her own conscience and values and with the advice and counsel of her partner, family and clergy.
...and your liberal arrogance is showing...
Gallup shows 54% of Americans now more conservative on abortion (I forget the exact wording on the question). It's pretty hard to make those folks pay for this procedure as part of the Uniform Benefits Plan proposed for ObamaCare. It's arrogance enough to kill the whole plan. Supporters of ObamaCare need to ask themselves it's worth it.
Well, it looks like a more recent poll shows the numbers as such: "pro-life" 47%, "pro-choice" 46%, which makes it a statistical tie. However, if we break the numbers down, we see that 78% of respondents say abortion should be allowed in either "all" or "certain" conditions. Only 18% said "illegal" in "all" situations. Seems the "arrogance" is just not there (as if using such a term was appropriate to begin with).
Link to the abortion poll:
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/us_abortion_attitudes_gallup_7.php
@Anon 7:54
So an abortion of an unwanted pregnancy would not be a form of birth control?
The good news is that the Senate Committee did not vote for more restrictions. There was a terrific editorial in the NYT about abortion in health care today. To Shaman, I am a proud liberal and proud progressive, although I'm not owning arrogant. And to you and Bill, I do not believe that abortion is a method of contraception. If you are familiar with our position, you know that we believe that life should never be created carelessly or because of ignorance. That's why we support and advocate for a faith based commitment to contraception and sexuality education.
It's your position and your notion of "unwanted life? that worries me Rev. Once you've got a life, to suggest not wanting it is troublesome language for me. We as Unitarian Universalists shouldn't be in the business of suggesting some lives would be wanted and others not.
Perhapes you don't even realize what's in what you write, but Unitarian Universalists should never suggest life is unwanted.
Bill, Shaman used the word "contraception," not birth control. Pretty idiotic, when you think about it, since there is no pregnancy, and no need for abortion, when a woman uses contraception. So actually Shaman helps support the "liberal" argument that effective education, contraception and family planning reduce abortion by reducing unplanned pregnancies. Thanks, Shaman, and welcome to the ranks of the arrogant liberals!
...that life should never be created carelessly or because of ignorance...
Shaman an idiot? Well, read Rev H's quote above and realize we idiots know much of what we should be most thankful for in life happens without plan, quite careless, out of ignorance; that maybe we know God best when we are foolish.
Life, whether planned or unplanned, from careless or uncareless love, (or from love or lust), is of the same universal worth and deserving of our protection.
Live understood best from the heart and least from the brain... it's good to be foolish sometimes. If that's Shaman's fault, then his soul is still in the right spot.
there is no pregnancy, and no need for abortion, when a woman uses contraception.
*******************
There is no contraceptive which is 100% effective and it's disingenuous to suggest this. You can cite perfect use rates for different contraceptives, but you really should cite actual use rates-and these are far from 100% effective. There are many people who know how to use contraception, know how and where to get it, use it all of the time, but in the heat of the moment on one particular day, don't, or through some human error, end up pregnant. This happens all the time and this is why abortion will continue to be used as a form of contraception.
Post a Comment