Jessica Arons, the Director of the Women's Health & Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, has a sharp piece in The Nation on the logic behind the Stupak amendment, which prevents the goverment health care plan from providing even indirect subsidies for plans that cover abortion.
Our society recognizes the distinction between direct and indirect funding all the time. Indeed, if we did not, our government probably could not function. Religious organizations receive tax money to provide direct social services but are strictly prohibited from using that money for sectarian purposes. Nonprofit organizations obtain government grants that can be used for charitable activities but not for electioneering. And we already have a precedent with respect to abortion: family planning clinics get public funding to provide contraception that cannot be spent on abortion. No reasonable person sees this funding as subsidizing activities that have been deemed ineligible for government spending or views the accounting practices used to segregate funds as illegitimate or inadequate.
Anti-abortion politics breeds this kind of nonsensical legislating. If the Stupak irrationale catches on, Amy's list provides a preview of the possible implications.
When I heard about the tragic murder of Dr. George Tiller, the Wichita doctor fatally shot in his church by an opponent of reproductive choice, I thought immediately about a group of brave women I met in Florida a couple of weeks ago.
Bush delivered a parting gift to the anti-choice fringe. His administration just issued a rule that allows individual health care providers, who receive federal funding, to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control -- and then refuse to provide these basic services. What the hell does that mean? It breaks down like this:
Birth control can be called abortion
Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists can deny women birth control and sexual health information
A few examples:
ER staff can deny rape victims information about emergency contraception (EC) to prevent a pregnancy from the rapist
Birth control counseling can be refused at family planning clinics
STD (including HIV & AIDS) testing and treatment can be denied at health care facilities
This is a devastatingly low blow to every one of us that relies on health care professionals for honest information and basic services. This rule flies in the face of the American values of privacy and freedom.
If Bush can do this to women, what can the next guys do to you?
Speak out; keep reading to find out how we can fight back…
George W Bush is a lame duck president; in fact, he has been acting like a former president for quite some time now. But the last two months after an election provide an outgoing president with a license to cause trouble.
...prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
