New Connections Will Pave the Road to Economic Recovery

In an effort -- as of last week unsuccessful -- to generate more
Republican support for the economic recovery package, President Obama
has conceded a provision that would have made it easier for states to
extend Medicaid coverage for family planning services to low-income
families. Yet, just week prior, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he
issued a stirring statement that proclaimed:

".....(W)e
are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies,
reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the
choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find
common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate
health information, and preventative services."

Why, within days, has President Obama violated his own pledge?

Part
of the answer is that our country's approach to economic policy simply
ignores meaningful connections between the issues we face in our
everyday lives. Because we allow abortion to be debated solely on
ideological grounds, we repeatedly ignore the real-life connection
between women's reproductive health and their economic security. How
else could it go unnoticed that as more and more women lose their jobs,
their economic well-being will be further jeopardized by limiting their
access to contraception (through Medicaid or through private
insurance), thus increasing their chances of an unintended pregnancy?

Making
this connection visible would make it much harder for Representative
John Boehner, the Republic House leader, to declaim, "How can you spend
hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that
stimulate the economy?"

A second part of the answer is that we
still do not consider women's economic participation vital to our
nation's economic advancement. Witness the lack of concern for the
absence of decent-paying jobs for women in the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Plan. How can this be when women account for nearly 70
percent of minimum-wage and below-minimum-wage workers, and when most
poor Americans are women and children? Why do we not take action to
realize the potential economic contributions of half our population as
we prepare to spend billions of dollars to stimulate the economy and
lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth?

House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi responded to criticism of the Medicaid family planning
expansion by stating that it would "reduce cost." This is absolutely
true. In 2007, the Congressional Budget office found that such a
measure would save the federal government $200 million over five years
by giving women the option to prevent unwanted pregnancies that would
result in Medicaid-funded births.

But what Speaker Pelosi -- and
President Obama -- didn't do, and must do, is make the connection that
women's health is fundamental to our country's economic health. If we
don't work quickly to ensure the economic security of women,
particularly low-income women and women of color -- by increasing their
access to contraception, decent-paying jobs with benefits, and quality
and affordable child care -- our nation will forego the full benefit of
their economic contributions now and in the future. Surely we can agree
that this would be an enormous step backward in our quest for economic
"recovery."