Women's Rights and Health Insurance Reform

[zandperl]

An open letter to my senators and representatives.

I am writing to you today regarding the health care reform bill currently before the house and senate

Comments

[calzephyr77]

:-( I never understand why birth control is such a big deal in the US. We have a quieter anti-abortion presence, but no one seems to get uptight about birth control.

[zandperl]

I'm not uptight about birth control. ;)

Religious conservatives are for one of two reasons or sometimes both. According to them, access to birth control (and condoms, and the HPV vaccine) encourages promiscuity and premarital sex. And according to them, birth control kills a human being - which is patently scientifically untrue. (Some older forms of hormonal birth control prevented the implantation of a fertilized egg, but modern hormonal birth control prevents ovulation, so there's no egg to even be fertilized. Emergency contraception pills such as Plan B are more likely to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, but even then it's not the only mechanism of action.)

[calzephyr77]

Oh, present company excluded of course!

I find the religious conservative viewpoint so foreign...the HPV vaccine had barely any controversy here, even in the Catholic school system. Maybe our conservatives just aren't vocal too :-)

[zandperl]

Roman Catholics aren't the most vocal group, it's the Evangelical Protestants who are, and I believe that Evangelical Protestants are a purely US phenomenon, arising out of the Puritanical traditions. Roman Catholics are relatively moderate, and they just jump on the bandwagon after everyone else has already spoken up. (For example when they offered to take back the Anglicans who left that church over the main Anglican church allowing gay marriage.)

[lurfmonkey]

While it would be bad if these things were left out of the health care reform bill, I cannot find any of the things you are talking about in H.R. 3590, the current Senate bill. Nowhere are birth control or contraceptives mentioned. Is there another word they use? It actually encourages education on contraception

About the bill

[zandperl]

(My reply was too long, so this part is about the bill.)

I admit to not having read either the Senate or House version of the bill myself - there have been so many versions bandied about I'm not even sure where to start looking to find the full text of them. Do you have a link to the full text of both versions where it confirms that those are the versions that either were just approved or are currently under debate?

The source of my concern was a post by hrafn , which links to this article (the link in her post is bad) and this one. I tried asking around to see if anyone knew conclusively if the current versions do include coverage for abortions, HBC, or pelvic exams, and when no one knew conclusively, I decided to write this letter anyway.

how is this reform any worse? For two reasons: (1) I expect that more people will be on the new plan after this reform than currently are on Medicare/caid, and (2) I have read arguments that this will result in changes in the practices of private insurance companies. The arguments go that if a

Re: About the bill

[lurfmonkey]

I'm currently referring to HR 3590, the bill that it's in the Senate right now. I also previously read much of HR 3200, the previous House bill, though it changed a bit before passage

About abortion

[zandperl]

I don't think taxpayers should pay for non-medically necessary ones. There should be some consequence for just accidentally getting pregnant.I know that you didn't intend to insult the intelligence of women when you said this, but please be aware that that is how it comes out. (Your words imply that women don't understand that abortions are a major medical procedure; your words imply that women are not able to decide what is a "worthy" reason for abortion and that someone else needs to decide it for them.) You are speaking from a place of privilege in this conversation, and you need to be careful with the words and phrases you choose not to perpetuate the inequities

[captain_risu]

ah i signed a petition at planned parenthood over private insurance no longer covering abortions. didn't realize there is ALOT more to this.

Long but anonymous comment

[anonymous]

I fear that you might delete this comment because I'm posting anonymously, but please read this before you do. I actually know you pretty well but prefer not to post on such a politically polarizing subject, so I hope you'll forgive the cowardice. I hope you won't take any of what I'm about to write the wrong way - I respect your right to publish your beliefs and I hope you'll tolerate a little bit of discussion and criticism

Re: Long but anonymous comment

[anonymous]

(continued