In the News
From RH Reality Check:
The Answer to the Stupak? Overturn Hyde Now
By Frances Kissling
Created Nov 8 2009 - 1:08am
Sorting through feelings as well as strategies in the face of the enormous defeat that the passage of a health care reform bill that so severely and punishingly restricts access to abortion will take time and hard political decisions. One wants to punish those who voted for the Stupak amendment and especially Stupak as much as they have punished women. At some point in time one has to put women first and above all else for no else will.
But the immediate take away is the cold hard fact that our biggest and most costly defeat since 1973 was the enactment of the Hyde Amendment and our lack of a total, uncompromising commitment to overturning it. If nothing else happens as a result of this defeat, complete and total dedication to overturning Hyde must be the centerpiece, indeed the single objective of our movement. It is not clear if the effect of the Stupak Amendment will be that the door will close on ever restoring federal funds for abortion, but every effort to make sure that does not happen must be made. We must convince enough people that the only immorality is using poor women as a way of expressing one’s moral outrage. Either we all have the right to choose or none of us has it.
President Obama has always supported overturning Hyde and we now need to insist that having achieved his political objective with strong support from the women’s movement, he must take up the true moral cause – giving women with no or low resources the same right of conscience as those with sufficient money to pay for their own abortions have always had.
Joe Biden and any pro-choice Democrat who has not been for over turning Hyde needs to change their mind – and we need to insist they do so.
I have great sympathy for the dilemma our friends on the Hill faced and in many ways I don’t want to come down hard on them. I know they are hurting and these votes will trouble them for years to come. The Catholic in me says the next step is restitution- all is never lost. That restitution is their unswerving commitment and tireless work to overturn the Hyde Amendment.
<http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/count/view/11757>
From the Guttmacher Institute:
MISUSE OF GUTTMACHER STATISTIC ON INSURANCE COVERAGE OF ABORTION
Among the many arguments being made in the debate over health care reform is the claim that because very few women use private insurance coverage to pay for abortion services, loss of this coverage would have minimal impact. Those making this argument cite a Guttmacher Institute statistic showing that 13% of all abortions in 2001 were directly billed to private insurance companies (see Table 3, page 20, here).
However, that statistic alone misrepresents the situation on three counts:
Our study included all women who obtained abortions in 2001, including women on Medicaid and those who are uninsured. If one looked only at privately insured women, the percentage of procedures billed directly to insurance companies would be substantially higher than 13%.
Perhaps even more importantly, the 13% statistic does not include women who pay for an abortion up front and then seek reimbursement from their insurance provider. This is common when a medical provider does not participate in a patient’s insurance plan, as is often the case with small, specialized providers, including abortion providers.
Lastly, some of the women whom our study identified as paying out of pocket likely had insurance coverage for abortion care, but may not have known they had it or chose not to use it for reasons of confidentiality. Given the stigma that still surrounds abortion, many women might not have wanted their insurer or employer—or their spouse or parent who may be the primary policyholder—to learn that they had obtained an abortion. That antiabortion activists who have worked for decades to perpetuate that stigma are now turning around and using it to argue why women should not be able to purchase insurance coverage for abortion is deeply cynical.
The best available evidence—from two studies conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and the Kaiser Family Foundation—suggests that most Americans with employer-based insurance currently have coverage for abortion. Further, as outlined above, direct billing does not equate to either extent of coverage or even use of coverage. Guttmacher’s 13% statistic, therefore, should not be cited as evidence that insurance coverage for abortion is not widespread or to suggest that restricting such coverage would have an impact on only a small minority of women.
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/08/04/politics-distorts-facts-impact-abortion-coverage
From the National Network of Abortion Funds
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erin Kate Ryan, Communications Director
617-524-6045, erinkate@nnaf.org
Those on immediate deadline, call:
617-763-8502 (cell)
WALLING OFF WOMEN'S ABORTION ACCESS: STUPAK LAYS THE NEXT BRICK
The following statement was issued by Stephanie Poggi, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds:
The Stupak/Pitts Amendment is the most far-reaching attack on abortion access in a generation. It endangers the health and well-being of millions of women by eliminating abortion coverage from the new insurance exchange.
Thirty-two years ago, the Right began walling off abortion access with the Hyde Amendment, which banned federal Medicaid coverage for abortion. Three decades have passed – three decades of poor women scrimping on food and other necessities to pay for their abortions.
Now, the Stupak Amendment builds the next layer of bricks on the wall that stands between women and the promise of Roe v. Wade.
Representative Henry Hyde – and the Catholic bishops who were as pivotal then as now – never intended to prevent only poor women from getting abortions. Representative Hyde made this clear 32 years ago during the Congressional debate on the Hyde Amendment: “I would certainly like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle class woman, or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the [Medicaid] bill.”
Today, the anti-abortion movement wants to use health care reform to finish what Henry Hyde started. With the Stupak Amendment, millions of additional women stand to lose their right to make the best decision for themselves and their families.
We oppose Stupak because it would clearly worsen the status quo – but let’s not forget that the status quo is indefensible. The status quo on abortion access has discriminated against poor women and women of color for a long time. Moreover, the so-called “abortion-neutral” Capps Amendment is an enormous compromise itself. By preserving federal funding restrictions on abortion, Capps does nothing to redress three decades of interference with the reproductive choices of low-income women.
The National Network of Abortion Funds and member abortion Funds have spent decades assisting the women who have already been walled off from abortion access by the Hyde Amendment. We know the hardship and sacrifice – and the bitter frustration when women and families are denied the ability to care for the children they already have. We will work with our member Funds and allies across the country to make sure that health care reform does not add one more woman to the thousands who are already denied what they need. And we will continue to work toward a new status quo that respects our sisters, our mothers, our daughters, our neighbors – and ourselves.
We call on our Senators and the White House to remember that health care reform was meant to be for all of us. Women, as well as men. We also call on our Senators and the White House to ensure that health care covers all people living in the United States. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, must have the right to be healthy and to gain access to comprehensive care. And health care in the new plan must be truly affordable, including a strong public option.
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Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care
WASHINGTON — As if it were not complicated enough, the debate over health care in Congress is becoming a battlefield in the fight over abortion.
Abortion opponents in both the House and the Senate are seeking to block the millions of middle- and lower-income people who might receive federal insurance subsidies to help them buy health coverage from using the money on plans that cover abortion. And the abortion opponents are getting enough support from moderate Democrats that both sides say the outcome is too close to call. Opponents of abortion cite as precedent a 30-year-old ban on the use of taxpayer money to pay for elective abortions.
click here to read on.
Women's Medical Fund Helps Where Government Fails
June 23, 2009 - 8:00am
"My name is Danielle," she says, and immediately begins to sob. "I have three little kids and cannot have another. I cannot. I'm telling you, I cannot be pregnant or have this baby."
Danielle then takes a deep, audible breath, lets out another sob, and slowly resumes talking to the answering machine at the Women's Medical Fund in Philadelphia... Click here to read on.
"Silenced"
This video reminds us that abortion clinic staff and volunteers are truly involved in dangerous work. Please join us in honoring those who risk much to make abortion rights a reality for women in every community. Please view the video and pass it on to others who support a woman's right to access legal reproductive health care.
National Network for Abortions Funds' Statement on Dr. Tiller's murder:
In Memoriam – George Tiller, doctor and champion of women’s rights
Abortion Funds Saddened but Not Intimidated,Pledging to Redouble Assistance to Women
The National Network of Abortion Funds expresses outrage and grief at the murder Sunday morning of Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas physician who since the 1970s provided abortion care for many women and girls who had nowhere else to turn.
“Dr. Tiller had already survived an attempt on his life, but he didn’t stop taking care of women. He always understood what abortion means in women’s lives,” said Stephanie Poggi, executive director of the Network. “Especially for poor women, who are more likely to need abortions in the second trimester, he provided essential care that was not available in many other clinics.”
In a rare public statement by Dr. Tiller in 2001 after anti-abortion protesters marched outside the same church where he was killed Sunday, Tiller explained his commitment to providing abortion care for women. “Make no mistake, this battle is about self-determination by women of the direction and course of their lives and their family’s lives. Abortion is about women’s hopes and dreams. Abortion is a matter of survival for women.”
Poggi noted that low-income women are more likely to have later abortions because of the time they must spend trying to raise money to pay for their abortions and that Tiller courageously provided this care, despite numerous attacks by anti-abortion activists. Over the many years that Dr. Tiller provided abortions, the Network and its member Funds helped thousands of poor women to reach Dr. Tiller’s clinic by covering the cost of abortion care as well as travel and lodging. The Network currently has 104 abortion Funds that help women who could not otherwise pay for abortions.
“The murder of Dr. George Tiller is an incalculable loss – to his family, to the women who need care at his clinic, to the providers still courageously assisting women, and to all of us in the reproductive rights and justice communities,” said Poggi.
“But to those who believe that the murder of Dr. George Tiller will set back the movement, we remember what George Tiller said when his clinic was bombed in 1986. He hung a sign outside the rubble that said, ‘Hell, No. We Won’t Go!’ And he set up services in temporary quarters.
“In the face of this tragedy,” said Poggi, “we will redouble our efforts to make sure all women get the abortion care they need – and all women are treated with dignity.”...
For more information, visit www.nnaf.org
Economy Puts Focus On Family Planning
by Kathy Lohr
All Things Considered, March 19, 2009 · The ongoing recession has cost millions of Americans their jobs, but for some it's hitting even closer to home. Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics are seeing more patients in their waiting rooms.
These clinics generally serve young women between the ages of 18 and 24. But now, older clients - and many without insurance - are coming in. Some are looking for help supporting the children they have. Others are afraid of raising a child they say they can't afford.
Family planning centers and clinics where abortions are performed see firsthand the effects of the economy on women in all age groups and income levels. Some noticed greater numbers seeking help in January.
"It's a time when families are looking at family size and how much they can provide," says Nancy Boothe of the Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta, who also saw an increase. Click to read the entire article.
Family planning may suffer as economy declines
Cost may increasingly become a factor in making decisions about pregnancy, reproductive service agencies warn
By Deborah L Shelton
March 10, 2009
As the economy worsens, providers of reproductive services say they are fielding more calls from distraught women facing difficult decisions about pregnancies they didn't plan and can't afford.
The interviews also suggest that more women are struggling to afford contraception and that, in some cases, they are risking their physical and emotional health by delaying abortion procedures for weeks as they seek a way to pay the cost.
One married woman told the Tribune she and her husband made the painful choice to end her pregnancy because they could not afford a third child. But the family's insurance doesn't cover abortions, and not until her 14th week could they pull together enough money to pay. Click here to read the entire article.