Other Women

I would love to read your opinion, if it offers something to the discussion, but anonymous anti-choice comments will be deleted.

Last night, the House passed its health care bill, which is awesome. But in order to pass it, an amendment effectively banning abortion coverage from the exchange was allowed. And that amendment passed. I sure hope 2 things: that it there was no way to get the bill through without it, and that it will be removed in committee. I really doubt that the former was true. I feel totally betrayed.

So what does it mean? If you don't have insurance now you will be able to purchase insurance in the exchange. But none of the plans in the exchange can provide abortion coverage. That means people who are most likely to be uninsured, the working poor, will be denied access to essential health care. Because that is what abortion is, health care. You might not agree that abortion should be option, but it is. And it is a legal medical procedure. So what are poor women to do? (Or middle class women, for that matter, just because you make $40k a year, that doesn't mean you have $500 just sitting around for a procedure.) The suggestion has been made that they could purchase an abortion rider with their own money. First of all, no such thing currently exists. It also creates barriers that just limit women's access. And it implies something that I think is at the core of the abortion debate: that there is a kind of woman who gets an abortion. And she knows who she is. The lack of abortion coverage won't be a problem for "good" women.

This is complete and total bullshit.

1 in 4 women will have an abortion. It is highly likely that we all know and love someone who has had an abortion. She is not some anonymous slut or a faceless victim of sexual assault. She is your wife, your mom, your sister, your boss. She is a kindergarten teacher, a police officer, a cashier, a college student. She is me.

But this idea that she is some other kind of women pervades the debate. On both sides.

When antis say that abortion is okay only in cases of rape and incest, this is what they are saying.

And when pro-choice women say "I believe in the right to choose, but would never have an abortion myself" they are saying another version of the same thing. We need to stop saying that. Because it doesn't matter what YOU would do. And when you say you wouldn't ever not never terminate a pregnancy, women who have had abortions hear: I am not like you. But you are. No one has "have an abortion" on their bucket list.

We HAVE to stand together on this. We can not leave poor and working women out to dry. And that is what happened last night. We said AGAIN that there are some women who do not deserve respect, dignity and the right to equal access to health care. These aren't OTHER women they/we did this to. It is us.