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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Planned Parenthood |
Planned Parenthood Condemns Passage of Stupak/Pitts Amendment
Statement by Cecile Richards, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Condeming Passage of Stupak/Pitts Amendment
WASHINGTON - November 11 - "Planned Parenthood condemns the adoption of the Stupak/Pitts amendment in HR 3962 this evening. This amendment is an unacceptable addition to the health care reform bill that, if enacted, would result in women losing health benefits they have today. Simply put, the Stupak/Pitts amendment would restrict women's access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market, undermining the ability of women to purchase private health plans that cover abortion, even if they pay for most of the premiums with their own money. This amendment reaches much further than the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited public funding of abortion in most instances since 1977.
"Planned Parenthood serves three million women every year through its more than 850 affiliate health centers across the country and has worked tirelessly on behalf of those patients for affordable, quality health care. On behalf of the millions of women Planned Parenthood health centers serve, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has no choice but to oppose HR 3962. The bill includes the Stupak/Pitts amendment that would leave women worse off after health care reform than they are today, violating President Obama's promise to the American people that no one would be forced to lose her or his present coverage under health reform.
"The Stupak/Pitts amendment violates the spirit of health care reform, which is meant to guarantee quality, affordable health care coverage for all. In fact, this amendment would create a two-tiered system that would punish women, particularly those with low and middle incomes, the very people this bill is intended to assist. The majority of private health insurance plans currently offer abortion coverage, and the Stupak/Pitts amendment would result in the elimination of private abortion coverage in the ‘exchange,' the new insurance market created under health care reform, as well as in the public option, if one is created.
"The Stupak/Pitts amendment would purportedly allow women who want comprehensive reproductive health care coverage to purchase a separate, single-service rider to cover abortion. But such abortion riders do not exist because women do not plan to have unintended pregnancies or medically complicated pregnancies that require ending the pregnancy. These so-called ‘abortion riders,' which would be the only insurance policy through which abortion care could be covered in the ‘exchange,' are discriminatory and illogical. Proposing a separate ‘abortion rider' or ‘single-service plan' is tantamount to banning abortion coverage since no insurance company would offer such a policy.
"It is extremely unfortunate that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and anti-choice opponents were able to hijack the health care reform bill in their dedicated attempt to ban all legal abortion In the United States. Most telling is the fact that the vast majority of members of the House who supported the Stupak/Pitts amendment in today's vote do not support HR 3962, revealing their true motive, which is to kill the health care reform bill. These single-issue advocates simply used health care reform to advance their extreme, ideological agenda at the expense of tens of millions of women.
"Planned Parenthood applauds the members of Congress who stood up for women's health and voted to oppose the Stupak/Pitts amendment. We will work with those members to rectify this travesty.
"As a health care provider, Planned Parenthood is committed to passing health care reform that will guarantee affordable, quality health care coverage for all, including access to comprehensive reproductive health care. In the coming weeks, Planned Parenthood will work with its allies in the Senate to ensure that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and those who oppose abortion do not once again hijack the legislative process in their ongoing campaign to make abortion illegal. Planned Parenthood will join forces with women and their families and health providers to ensure that health care reform does not take away benefits that most women with private health coverage have today. Together, women and their allies are going to make their voices heard, so that they do not become second-class citizens in a newly reformed health care system in the United States."
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Show AllC Street Hypocrits behind this bill
The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name
The Sanford and Ensign Scandals Open a Door On Previously Secretive 'C Street' Spiritual Haven
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 26, 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062504480.html
No sign explains the prim and proper red brick house on C Street SE.
Nothing hints at its secrets.
It blends into the streetscape, tucked behind the Library of Congress, a few steps from the Cannon House Office Building, a few more steps to the Capitol. This is just the way its residents want it to be. Almost invisible. …
People familiar with the house say the downstairs is generally used for meals and prayer meetings. Volunteers help facilitate prayer meetings, they said. Residents include Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), Ensign and Coburn. None of the congressmen agreed to be interviewed for this article. But associates of some of Ensign's housemates privately worried that the other residents would be tarred by the scandals.
"That two fell doesn't prove that the house -- which has seen many members of Congress pass through and engage in Bible studies -- doesn't mean that the house has failed," said conservative columnist Cal Thomas, who once spoke to a group of interns at the house. "If that was the standard, the whole Congress would be corrupt."
The house's residents mostly adhere to a code of silence about the place, seldom discussing it publicly, lending an aura of mystery to what happens inside and a hint of conspiratorial speculation. In a town where everyone talks about everything, the residents have managed largely to keep such a refuge to themselves and their friends. On a street mostly occupied by Hill staffers and professionals in their 20s and early 30s, some of the Democratic staffers nicknamed it "the Prayer House." On summer evenings, the congressmen would sometimes sit out front smoking cigars and chatting, but what went on inside stayed inside.
The house, which is assessed at $1.84 million, is registered to a little-known organization called Youth With a Mission of Washington DC. Carver, who said his Fellowship group is affiliated with the house, said that he has never heard of Youth With a Mission of Washington DC and that he did not have a phone number for it. Later, he said, he spoke with someone who "at one time was involved with the house" and had "heard secondhand" that the organization that runs the house is "subscribing to the no-comment."
Ensign moves out of home on C Street
Town house shared with Christian colleagues had gained notoriety because of Nevadan’s affair
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/08/ensign-moves-out-home-c-street/
By Lisa Mascaro Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 | 2 a.m…. As many six lawmakers — senators and congressmen — reside at the multistory town house just a few blocks from the Capitol. Group residences are common in Washington, where rents are high and elected officials typically support a residence in the capital and one in their home state….
But new allegations reported in The New York Times in October reignited the story. The Times reported that Ensign may have knowingly allowed Doug Hampton, in his new job consulting for Nevada companies, to lobby the senator’s office in possible violation of the one-year lobby ban for top staff members.
Bart Stupak’s C-Street Sepsis
By: emptywheel Sunday November 8, 2009 4:43 am
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/11/08/bart-stupaks-c-street-sepsis/
As you read Bart Stupak boasting of taking reproductive choice away from women, remember that he’s not just an otherwise good Democrat (he’s not, in fact, a Blue Dog) who consistently lets the agenda of the Catholic Church override the well-being of his constituents, he’s also one of C-Street’s top Democratic members. This man, crowing over his legislative success is speaking as a representative of a group that preaches moral purity for others, but excuses itself from such moral guidelines with a back-slapping prayer lunch with the buddies. And then turns around and uses that moralizing to accrue political power.
HuffPost asked Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, why he succeeded and the progressives failed.
“Because I didn’t threat[en]. These are the facts,” he said.
But you did threaten, a reporter pointed out.
No, Stupak said, it wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. “No, they know I’ll vote against the rule,” he said.
Stupak said the Blue Dogs have gradually been sending a message to leadership and that much of it goes back to a previous vote involving an appropriations bill that Blue Dogs wanted to include pro-life language.
In July, the House considered a Financial Services Appropriations bill that would allow publicly-funded abortions in the District of Columbia. Stupak and allies were not allowed an amendment, so they sought to “take down the rule” — in other words, round up enough votes to deny he bill a chance to get voted on on the floor. When time expired, the pro-lifers had prevailed. But Pelosi held the vote open for extra time and persuaded four members to switch their votes.
They didn’t win in the end, Stupak said, but they accomplished their goal.
“We wanted to send a message,” he said. “We went back and I said, ‘See, I can take down your rule.’”
He has held his fire since then, saving his strength for the health care bill.
“Now, I have not threatened that every time that we went to Rules Committee and we didn’t always get our pro-life amendments, I did not try to take down any rules. You have to pick your fights at the right time. You can’t be crying wolf all the time because you lose your wolfiness. You lose your credibility,” he said. “So I’m not going to lose my credibility. So you use it at certain times when it’s appropriate.”
Viewed through the lens of Stupak’s C Street membership, this victory lap (and all the others he has been doing) comes off as what it is: a naked grab for power through hypocritical moralizing.
Too bad that formula works so well for so many in Washington.
Beware...women's choice is not the only catastrophic loss in H.R. 3962!!!
PELOSI HAS ADDED AN AMENDMENT THAT INCLUDES JAIL TIME AND FINES AND FORCED VACCINATIONS!!!