See what Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, has to say about the passage of national health-care reform.

 

 

 

A flurry of debate erupted about national health care reform and reproductive rights, especially the issue of abortion. Opponents of health care reform attempted to use anti-abortion politics to derail real change.

 

NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts worked with our national organization, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and other pro-choice groups to challenge the anti-choice push to impose a new nationwide ban on abortion coverage.

 

We pointed to our experience here in Massachusetts, where – like across the nation – most private insurance plans cover abortion care, even though our health reform law doesn't explicitly require them to do so.

 

Nothing in the original federal bills would have mandated abortion coverage by health care plans, nor would taxpayer money be used to pay for abortions in a public plan. (There's no "public plan" equivalent in Massachusetts, although abortion care is included in the state-subsidized programs for lower-income residents in the Commonwealth.)

 

Still, anti-choice lawmakers in D.C. and extremist groups like the Family Research Council tried to claim there was a "hidden" abortion mandate in the original federal health care reform bills. And they started a nationwide misinformation campaign to bolster their case.

 

Factcheck.org publicly refuted these claims, noting that the original federal proposals would not expand abortion coverage beyond where it is now and consumers could choose a plan that does not offer abortion care.

 

Unfortunately, anti-choice lawmakers pushed through anti-choice amendments in both the House and Senate versions of the health care reform bill. In particular, a study by George Washington University (GWU) concluded that the Stupak-Pitts Amendment from the House version would eventually eliminate coverage of abortion care for all women, not only those whose coverage would be derived through a health insurance exchange. GWU made similar conlusions about the Senate version.

 

With your help, we will continue to monitor, speak up, and take action so that decisions about coverage for reproductive health services are made by medical experts and consumers – not anti-choice groups and lawmakers pushing their own agenda.

 

NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to affordable, high-quality care.

 

To learn more, check out these news articles: