Wouldn't you know it- while we silly feminists have been agonizing
about the impact of the Stupak Amendment after Nancy and the Cardinals
did the C Street Shuffle at the Saturday Night Congressional Jerk I
mean Dance Off it turns out that if we really want to keep our
reproductive rights, all we need to do is get a job at the RNC or the anti-choice group Focus on the Family cuz their health plans cover, wait for it, ABORTION. Really.
I don't even know why this surprises me. The entire health care
debate without end has been one long-winded exercise in stupid. From
the get go the sad thing is that what passes as discourse has suffered
from the same malady as the abortion issue-a deeply flawed frame. In
the case of abortion, the minute the word 'choice' and the phrase
'pro-life' became the descriptors, the discussion we should have been
having about women's reproductive rights was gone.
In the case of health care we have had all manner of false flag
buzzwords-public option, triggers, yada yada everything centered around
the cost of premiums totally losing sight of the fact that health care
is a human right, not a commodity that needs to be delivered in a way
that keeps pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies afloat so
they will keep funding our elected representatives. Our health care
system is ill, it is a disgrace and it is an affront to human decency.
Ditto our Congress who, with very few exceptions have apparently had
frontal lobotomies and seem to be suffering from some painful form of
spinal disintegration. What part of just fix it could possibly not be
clear? The answer of course is apparently the whole damned thing and
until we insist that Congress get their little patooties (I leave it to
you to decide what part of the anatomy you feel that should describe)
pointed in the right direction and back on topic, our health care is
going to remain in critical condition.
One of the most galling aspects of the Stupak Amendment is that
after months of dithering, pontificating, waffling and other forms of
ass covering that pass for political debate these days, Stupak happened
in the 11th hour before a Saturday vote leaving reproductive justice
advocates doing a lot of WTF-ing. I am still deeply shocked that the
Democratic leadership that has been so unable to use its majority
position to act decisively could all of a sudden simply decide that
women's reproductive rights could just cavalierly be thrown to the Blue
Dogs for the sake of the last 3 votes. It is just breathtaking even
though it has come to light in recent months that our current system
has been shafting women on many health care fronts for quite some
time-higher premiums, maternity care, etc. As I noted last week, even high risk state insurance pools have been discrimination against women.
But what is the deal with Pelosi making a last minute concession of this magnitude to the Catholic Church? Wendy Norris
sheds some light on why this isn't just a matter of the Catholic Church
playing the abortion card on a moral basis, it is also has a huge
stake in the financial ramifications of the health care legislation,
The justifiable anger at the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops for lobbying on the Stupak-Pitts amendment overshadows what is
possibly the bigger motive for the Vatican: the billions of dollars at
stake for the church's hospitals.
The scale of the church's involvement in the rapidly growing $2.5 trillion dollar American health care industry is staggering.
Abortion may be safe, it may be legal. But if it isn't affordable,
it is de facto not available and that is detrimental to women's health
and an unacceptable compromise. For additional commentary on this
issue, please also read,
