Blogs Comment On Abortion Coverage In Health Reform, International Women's Day, Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "Stupak's Abortion Argument: Still More About Class Than Choice": Washington Post's "Ezra Klein": The "practical effect" of Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) position on abortion-related language in health reform legislation "is not that the federal government will not subsidize abortion by subsidizing health care insurance" but that "it will not subsidize abortion by subsidizing health care insurance for poor women," Klein writes. Klein includes an excerpt from Post colleague Matt Miller's recent blog post on the subject. Miller wrote, "This entire debate is ridiculous, because the feds already subsidize abortions massively, via the giant tax subsidy for employer-provided care. Today the feds devote at least $250 billion a year to subsidizing employer-based coverage, a subsidy that skews incentives horribly (but which big business and big labor wouldn't let the politicians touch this year)." Miller also noted that data from the Guttmacher Institute show that 87% of typical employer plans cover abortion services. According to Klein, Stupak's amendment -- which would bar all insurance plans that receive federal subsidies from covering abortion -- "is as much about class as it is choice." Klein writes that "the poorer women who will be using subsidies on [health insurance exchanges] are a much easier target" than wealthier women with employer-provided coverage (Klein, "Ezra Klein," Washington Post, 3/5).

~ "International Women's Day: The Enormous Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Pregnancy Related Care," Sharon Camp, Huffington Post blogs: International Women's Day this year "coincides with the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic pledge to make the recognition and fulfillment of women's rights a global priority," Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, writes. She adds, "The declaration makes clear that reproductive health is critical to the well-being of women and men, asserts all people's right to have access to family planning information and services, and underscores the importance of maternal and newborn health care." According to Camp, "Approximately 215 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using an effective method of contraception, and only about half of the 123 million women who give birth each year receive the antenatal, delivery and newborn care they need." She adds, "Millions of those women who experience major complications get no treatment and either die or suffer from severe and debilitating conditions, such as obstetric fistula." She continues, "It is clear that investing in women has vast benefits, not just for individuals and families, but for societies as a whole," concluding, "It can truly transform the future of developing nations" (Camp, Huffington Post blogs, 3/9).














~ "This International Women's Day, Let's Aim To End Maternal Deaths," Tamar Abrams, Huffington Post blogs: A December 2009 report from the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund shows that "[m]aternal deaths in developing countries could be slashed by 70% and newborn deaths cut nearly in half if the world doubled investment in family planning and pregnancy-related care," Abrams writes. She adds that the report "found that investments in family planning boost the overall effectiveness of every dollar spent on the provision of pregnancy-related and newborn health care." According to Abrams, delegates who plan to attend June's Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C., "are determined to put maternal health high up on the agendas of leaders of nations large and small, developed and getting there." The delegates plan to ask for "$10 billion in additional funding for global maternal health annually, increasing to an additional $20 billion by 2015," Abrams says. She concludes, "We mustn't let this critical discussion get bogged down in ideology about abortion or contraceptives or politics" (Abrams, Huffington Post blogs, 3/5).

~ "Dirty Dozen: Does Stupak Really Have the Votes Needed To Sink Health Care?": Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo's "TPMDC": Stupak is currently "holding health care reform hostage over the issue of abortion" and says "he can flip about a dozen 'yes' votes on health care (including his own) to 'no' votes if nothing is done about" abortion language in the Senate bill (HR 3590), Beutler writes. It is difficult to definitively identify these lawmakers, "[b]ut it is possible to whittle down a list of likely suspects," according to Beutler. He concludes that with Democratic leaders and "the White House teaming up to twist arm[s], it's hard to imagine all of Stupak['s] supporters will stick together" (Beutler, "TPMDC," Talking Points Memo, 3/8).

~ "Wreckonciliation": Rebecca Sive, RH Reality Check: Sive writes, "We, the women of America, are being told by those on-high, starting with those who might have been at the White House on International Women's Day, including Nancy Pelosi -- the most important woman in America right about now -- that American women's most fundamental right, our right to control our reproductive destiny, should be of no consequence in the effort to reform health care." Sive criticizes Pelosi for insisting that the health reform debate is "'not about abortion,' ... when even the most politically untrained, outside-the-Beltway bystander knows otherwise." Sive writes, "The future of ... health care reform has come down to this: can [Pelosi] and the White House come to a winning plan on how to deal with access to abortion?" Sive adds that regardless of how much ground Pelosi concedes to antiabortion-rights forces today, "they'll just ask for more tomorrow. That's how Washington works; that's how men in power work; that's how women in power who don't care about women work." Sive concludes, "That's wreckonciliation" (Sive, RH Reality Check, 3/9).

~ "Trouble for Mitt Romney? Mass. Health Plan Covers Abortion": Brian Montopoli, CBS News' "Political Hotsheet": "Mitt Romney's role in overseeing passage of a universal health care plan in Massachusetts appears likely to cause headaches for the former Republican governor should he make his widely expected run for the White House in 2012," Montopoli writes. He notes that other commentators are drawing attention to the fact that "all of the government-subsidized health care plans offered to low-income Massachusetts residents, under a program called Commonwealth Care, cover abortion." David Axelrod, a White House senior adviser, has called the Massachusetts health insurance law the "template" for Obama's reform plans. Montopoli writes, "All this appears to leave Romney on the wrong side of the issue." In response to criticism over the abortion issue, Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom said, "Court rulings in Massachusetts require state-subsidized health plans to offer abortion services. It's not something that Gov. Romney agrees with, but it's longstanding court precedent that predates his administration" (Montopoli, "Political Hotsheet," CBS News, 3/8).

~ "Abortion Will NOT Be a Deal Breaker," Linda Bergthold, Huffington Post blogs: Health policy consultant Bergthold writes, "If you only watched TV or surfed the net, you would think health reform hangs by a thread over abortion," when in fact it "does not." Bergthold says this misrepresentation occurs because abortion is "controversial" and abortion-rights opponents -- such as Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) -- "are the loudest voices" in the debate. Bergthold writes, "I do not believe that in the final analysis Stupak will have the votes to destroy health reform over the abortion issue. At least I want to believe that. " She adds, "But the media likes to play it up because it attracts an audience" (Bergthold, Huffington Post blogs, 3/6).


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