Thursday, March 25, 2010
On the Backs of Women...
Yesterday the President issued an executive order re-iterating restrictions on using federal funds for elective abortions, as per the last minute health care reform negotiations.
To read this Executive Order: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-patient-protection-and-affordable-care-acts-consistency-with-longst
The exact language from the Executive Order (which has the standing of law) reads:
The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly created health insurance exchanges. Under the Act, longstanding Federal laws to protect conscience (such as the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. 300a-7, and the Weldon Amendment, section 508(d)(1) of Public Law 111-8) remain intact and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
The President said that health care reform should not change any "long standing precedents" referring to the bans on abortion. The current federal bans on funding abortions are on the backs of poor women and women who serve in the military. If you are a poor woman receiving TANF and Medicaid, you must find a way to fund a legal abortion; if you are a woman serving in the military you must go outside the military's health care and off base to obtain (at your own cost) an abortion--not so easy if you are serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. . .
Mr. President, a longer standing precedent is the right of women to choose abortion (Roe v Wade).
But I also want to draw our attention to the second part of that paragraph from the Executive Order. It reads: new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
Thus, protecting those who discriminate against women's autonomy and right to choose from discrimination????!!!! Planned Parenthood and all full service women's health clnics should have complementary protection, no?
So much for a pro-choice president.
To read this Executive Order: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-patient-protection-and-affordable-care-acts-consistency-with-longst
The exact language from the Executive Order (which has the standing of law) reads:
The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly created health insurance exchanges. Under the Act, longstanding Federal laws to protect conscience (such as the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. 300a-7, and the Weldon Amendment, section 508(d)(1) of Public Law 111-8) remain intact and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
The President said that health care reform should not change any "long standing precedents" referring to the bans on abortion. The current federal bans on funding abortions are on the backs of poor women and women who serve in the military. If you are a poor woman receiving TANF and Medicaid, you must find a way to fund a legal abortion; if you are a woman serving in the military you must go outside the military's health care and off base to obtain (at your own cost) an abortion--not so easy if you are serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. . .
Mr. President, a longer standing precedent is the right of women to choose abortion (Roe v Wade).
But I also want to draw our attention to the second part of that paragraph from the Executive Order. It reads: new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
Thus, protecting those who discriminate against women's autonomy and right to choose from discrimination????!!!! Planned Parenthood and all full service women's health clnics should have complementary protection, no?
So much for a pro-choice president.
Labels: Anti-woman, Executive Order
