The department of Health and Human
Services announced July 15 that abortion services would not be covered in
states’ “high risk” insurance pools being created under the Affordable Health
Care Act. These pools are being created so that people who previously could not
purchase insurance due to pre-existing conditions will be able to do so. This
means that a woman with a pre-existing condition such as cancer or heart
disease will not be allowed to purchase—with her own money—an insurance plan
that covers abortion, except in the case of rape, incest or if carrying the
pregnancy to term will endanger her life.
 Stop Stupak rally organized by Harvard’s Students for Choice |
This announcement was made in
response to right-wing accusations that a high-risk insurance pool in
Pennsylvania would cover all legal abortions.
Pennsylvania had approved a
program that potentially covered abortion. The plan did not allow “elective”
abortions, but the term “elective” was not defined. Abortion would have been
allowed if it were deemed “necessary” by a physician based on “all factors
(physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman’s age) relevant to
the well-being of the woman.”
Rather than stand up to the
anti-abortion right, the Obama administration caved in and issued the latest
restriction on abortion in the context of the recent health care law.
Previously, in March of this year,
the so-called Stupak amendment, sponsored by Rep. Bart
Stupak, D-Mich., led to Obama issuing an executive order clarifying that under
no circumstances would federal money be used to pay for abortion except in the
case of incest, rape or threat to the life of the woman, in keeping with the
Hyde Amendment of 1976, which excluded abortion from the medical services
provided to poor people on Medicaid.
While the executive order was bad
enough, this latest restriction goes even further. The state insurance pools
for pre-existing conditions exist to allow people to purchase insurance with
their own money. Instead of saying that abortion is a legal medical procedure
that should be covered by insurance plans that women pay for with their own
dollars, the Obama administration conceded to the right and banned the
procedure from the high-risk pools.
Women with pre-existing conditions
are at higher risk for dangerous pregnancies. However, the restriction only
allows for abortion in the case of rape, incest or if the pregnancy “endangers
the life of the woman.” This means that if the pregnancy were to “merely”
endanger the health and well-being of a woman, but not actually kill her, she
and her doctor would not be able to choose to terminate the pregnancy with an
elective abortion.
Over the years, the bourgeois
feminist movement has staunchly supported the Democratic Party and directed the
energies of the movement to supporting Democrat candidates in the national
elections, with a special focus on abortion as a key issue. The theory behind
this strategy was that a Democrat president would protect a woman’s right to
choose. This latest act by the Obama administration makes it harder than ever
to defend this position.
