I AM ANGRY! And I have every right to be. Hey Congress-STEP OFF!
In the midst of news of Wikileaks and Egypt, it is pretty easy to miss what is going on in our own government in regards to women and their bodies. A series of proposals threaten the livelihood of Americans. I do not say only “of women” because if these proposals are passed, we will feel the effects throughout the entire nation. Below I have summarized three proposed bills that some shortsighted politicians are trying to pass.
# 1 On Feb. 9, the House Appropriations Committee in a released draft of the Continuing Resolution Bill has proposed a 327 Million-Dollar cut for Family Planning. This would essentially end the entire Title X program that gives clinics such as Planned Parenthood federal funds to provide basic health care such as contraception, STD treatment, and cancer screenings.
So on top of the fact that taxpayers have given 1.5 billion dollars every year to abstinence only sex-education, which immorally denies our citizens access to important information about their health, now those who have overcome this barrier and seek preventative care won’t be able to get it.
Not that this should be seen as a positive, but for those of you out there that are worried about federal funds being used for abortions this program was unable to do so anyways due to the Hyde Amendment of 1976. Title X provides preventative health care–which, to those of you who don’t know, would prevent people from having unwanted pregnancies that they might later have to later abort. If these politicians really want to stop abortions, a good way is to make it easier for people to prevent pregnancy.
#2 HR3, or the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” would eliminate tax breaks for private employers who provide health care coverage if their plans offer abortion services. It would also forbid women who use a flexible spending plan to use pre-tax dollars for abortions. Those restrictions would go well beyond the Hyde Amendment’s restriction of prohibiting the use of federal money for abortion services.
HR3 is the same bill that included the “forcible” rape language clause. Currently there is an exception to the Hyde Amendment that says federal funding can cover abortions in the case of rape and incest. However this bill would like to limit that exception to only include abortions for “forcible rape” which is a definition that says that an act isn’t rape if the victim was drugged, when the survivor has been drinking, children who are victims of statutory rape, and many date rape scenarios. This new definition would define seventy-percent of currently reported rapes as not “rape.” The legal repercussions of this could be disastrous for rape survivors who already face many difficulties in the justice system.
#3 The third bill HR358, also known as the “Protect Life Act,” is to prohibit Americans who receive insurance through state exchanges from purchasing abortion coverage, even with their OWN money.
The bill would also permit hospitals to refuse abortions to women, even in emergency situations, if such care would offend the conscience of the health care providers. This bill then would allow doctors TO LET PREGNANT WOMEN DIE if they have a life-threatening condition and need an emergency abortion. Here’s a hint politicians, if the mom dies in most cases the fetus will also die. No life will be saved.
#4 And in case those limitations on women’s health care weren’t enough, if all these bills are passed, in case you end up having the child that you were forced to have when you got pregnant because you could no longer get contraception when Title X funding was cut and you were unable get an abortion, 995 million dollars worth of cuts are proposed to limit funding on food assistance for women and their infants, (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program) health care for mothers and children, (Maternal and Child Health Block Grants) and cuts are also proposed for the Poison Control Center which disproportionally aids children under six.
These are only the bills at the national level. On the state level, a series of other bills are trying to limit women’s healthcare as well.
WE CANNOT STAND FOR THIS!
Soon women of privilege will have to go to Canada or Mexico to obtain abortions. Those who cannot afford this travel, especially as many of these bills especially target low-income women, will be forced to have dangerous back-alley abortions.
WE CAN”T STAND FOR THIS!!
I want to live in a country where women are trusted to make their own medical decisions. I want to live in a country where women and their bodies are respected.
DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WITHOUT A FIGHT!
GET ANGRY AND DO SOMETHING!
Ketchum is a member of the class of 2012.
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