Fall 2009 - Promoting Access to Reproductive Health as Reform Debate Heats Up
NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts is at the forefront of efforts to protect and promote access to reproductive health services in the context of health care reform – both here and in Washington D.C.Fighting for Low-Income Residents in Massachusetts
In March, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts raised the alarm when Caritas Christi Health Care (a Catholic-affiliated hospital and provider network) announced plans to become part owner of a new, state-subsidized health plan. We were concerned about Caritas's involvement because of the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control and abortion – which are covered services for low-income residents. With the support of our members, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts was able to protect these essential reproductive health services. We urged the Commonwealth Connector Board (which oversees these health plans) to carefully evaluate the joint venture to ensure there would be full disclosure and timely provision of health care – even when Caritas providers were unwilling or unable to offer these services directly. And we secured pledges from members of the Connector Board to be a partner in monitoring the roll out and implementation of the plan. Despite these careful negotiations, Cardinal O'Malley was still not satisfied. In June, he announced that the plan still represented too much entanglement between Catholic hospitals and reproductive healthcare providers. And Caritas pulled out of the joint venture – just days before it was scheduled to go into effect. Informing the National Health Care Debate A flurry of debate erupted over the summer as opponents of health care reform launched a cynical campaign to use anti-abortion politics to derail real change and impose their anti-choice agenda on women all across the country. NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts has joined forces with our national organization, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and other pro-choice groups to thwart the anti-choice push to impose a new nationwide ban on abortion coverage as part of health reform. We've 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. We've noted that the pending federal bills also do not mandate abortion coverage in those plans. Nor would federal funds be used to pay for abortions in the public plan. (There's no “public plan” equivalent here, although abortion care is included in the state-subsidized programs for lower-income residents in the Commonwealth – see above.) Still, anti-choice lawmakers in D.C. and extremist groups like the Family Research Council are trying to claim there is a “hidden” abortion mandate in the federal health care reform bills. And they have started a nationwide misinformation campaign to bolster their case. Factcheck.org has publicly refuted these claims, noting that the new federal proposals would not expand abortion coverage beyond where it is now and consumers could choose a plan that does not offer abortion care. 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. And we will strive to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, high-quality care. (See the article on the REaDY Initiative to find out more about the key role we play in a new Massachusetts project to improve family planning for young adults.) | 
