Open Letter From NOW
 |
What President Obama calls "a way forward" on health care is in fact a giant leap backward for women. Here's why.
The Senate's version of health care legislation, which the House leadership is now poised to pass without any changes, contains sweeping anti-abortion language, fails to eliminate gender or age rating, and offers no pathway to a single-payer system.
But wait -- it gets worse. Bart Stupak is crowing -- again.He's telling reporters he's got a way to hold the health care bill hostage until Speaker Pelosi and the White House agree to put the Stupak-Pitts amendment into it.
NOW is working furiously to stop Stupak and fix this bill, but I need your support more than ever to get the job done. Will you contribute today?
What happened to the hope that our newly elected president and leaders of Congress would uphold women's fundamental right to abortion care? The Senate bill, if enacted, would eventually make private as well as public insurance coverage for abortion unavailable,depriving millions of women of coverage that they currently have.
Contribute today so we can push Congress to restore hope for millions of women.
You might not hear this anywhere else, but let me tell you some facts about the Senate bill.
- Although we've been repeatedly told that gender rating would be eliminated, in fact the Senate bill contains language that allows that practice to continue.
- The Senate bill explicitly allows insurance companies to charge older people up to three times the premiums they charge other policy holders -- a provision that disproportionately harms middle-aged women.
Millions of us are asking -- whatever happened to the politics of hope?
I'll be honest -- I don't know what happened to those hopes, but I do know this: the National Organization for Women will not compromise our most basic principles. As the health care debate winds down to its last twists and turns, we will stay focused and true to our goals.
We will not accept a health care bill that trades off the rights and needs of some women for the benefit of others. And we will never stop fighting for the right of every woman to have equal access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.
Please help us speak out loudly and forcefully -- with your donation, we can do it!
For justice and equality,
Terry O'Neill
NOW President
|
