What the first part of the legal mandate that the Stupak Amendment would impose is not new. It echoes the law laid down back in 1976 by the Hyde Amendment, which already forbids the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions. The exceptions are for rape and incest or when the woman's life is threatened if the pregnancy proceeds.
It's the second part of the amendment that really ticks me off. The second graf of this travesty severely limits the availability of private insurance that does cover the procedure. In other words, the Stupak Amendment doesn't just apply to the public option, which is the low cost government plan. It affects the proposed health care exchange plans as well, by forcing insurers to drop abortion coverage that they already offer, right now, to any new customers who may want to sign up with them through the proposed exchanges.
This means that if you have a health plan and want to switch to another plan under the proposed health exchange... that may provide better coverage at a lower price, and your old policy has abortion coverage and you're okay with that...then you will lose that option under the law...when you switch.
The reach of the Stupak Amendment goes well beyond the law in violating the rights of choice for women.
A little known fact is that nearly 90% of all insurance plans offered in America, cover abortion. The problem is that employers and corporations opt out of that part of the policy for their female employees. In case you didn't know, your employer chooses what coverage you get on plans as they are written now.
The way it is structured, thanks to Stupak is that even if a woman wants to take her own money and purchase a plan with an option for abortion, in the private sector, she will not be able to do so.
If the goal is to put everyone in a lower priced exchange of more affordable coverage..this is a back assward way to do it. It won't happen...The insurance companies win again..
According to Stupak, women will always be free to buy an optional rider out of their own pocket if they want the coverage. But once again there is that catch 22..
Most people don't think about medical procedures until they need to undergo them...Who plans for an unplanned pregnancy?
But I guess if you're used to thinking of all pregnancies as pre-existing conditions...then the Stupak Amendment makes perfect sense.
Those who favored the Stupak Amendment like my ex Congressman Driehaus say they are merely upholding the noxious Hyde Amendment...when actually they are expanding exponentially to the detriment of women.
Let's be real about the situation. Laws of this type hurt poor women...those living in poverty...
The women who live, love and screw Congressman...will never have to worry about the Hyde Amendment or Stupak Amendment.... since their powerful men are paid their salaries with taxpayer money...to protect them and to give them the best coverage that taxpayer money can buy..
Well, that sounds like a government subsidized abortion to me...using government money to end a pregnancy....But blocked for those who can't fight back..
Rich white women have never had to worry about ending a pregnancy or anything else....racist? maybe....but did I lie?
64 Democrats voted in support of the Stupak Amendment....23 of them voted against the health care bill.
The good news is that this bill now goes to the Senate for more work and compromise amid my hopes that the Stupak Amendment will not make it into the bill that lands on Obama's desk..
I am not at ease with this, because while I know that Obama says he supports a woman's right to choose..... he elected to fund the Hyde Amendment in the budget...when he could have effectively killed it like Clinton did, and maybe circumvented this Stupak Amendment stupidity.
Obama's handling of the health care debate puts me in mind of Muhammed Ali's famous rope a dope technique.
Everyone including me, thought Ali was crazy to lay on the ropes and let big George Foreman rain punches on him for round after round after round...Ali just duckin' and weavin'...resting on the ropes...
Along comes the 9th round, I think..and George's arms are tired...His muscles are at fail...he can't throw a punch...and Ali comes off the ropes and whups his ass....Knock Out!
Ali wins again...
I hated the rope a dope because I wanted Ali to just go in there blastin and kickin ass...I wanted him to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee and go home til the next fight..
I would like for my President to do the same thing...float in...get it done and float on to the next crisis...
However...he seems to like the rope a dope...I had to learn to trust Ali's instincts...
I am still learning to trust Obama's...
Hope he's resting readying the knockout punch when it's time...
Until it comes...I am not resting easy...
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