14 Oct 2011 3:03 pm
Yesterday evening Congress passed the controversial Protect Life Act, a Republican-crafted bill which blocks women from buying health insurance planseven private onesthat cover abortion and are available under the Affordable Care Act. It also repeals hospitals legal obligation to treat women in life threatening conditions, making it legal to deny abortion, even if it could save a womans life. Republican House Majority leader Eric Cantor, a supporter of the bill, explained that its intent is to ensure that no taxpayer dollars flow to health care plans that cover abortion under Obamacare, framing the issue in the same terms they discussed in the defunding of Planned Parenthood in February. But as the Huffington Post pointed out, the Affordable Care Act already keeps public dollars separate from the private insurance payments that cover abortion. As most private insurance plans do cover abortion, the law appears to be pushing private insurers away from offering that particular coverage. As the Huffington Post wrote: H.R. 358, introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), goes beyond the issue of taxpayer dollars to place actual limits on the way a woman spends her own money. The bill would prevent a woman from buying a private insurance plan that includes abortion coverage through a state health care exchange, even though most insurance plans currently cover abortion. An even more controversial aspect of the bill would allow hospitals that are morally opposed to abortion, such as Catholic institutions, to do nothing for a woman who requires an emergency abortion procedure to save her life. Current law requires that hospitals give patients in life-threatening situations whatever care they need, regardless of the patients financial situation, but the Protect Life Act would make a hospitals obligation to provide care in medical emergencies secondary to its refusal to provide abortions. Thankfully, the bill is unlikely to pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and even if it did, the White House said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama will veto the legislation if it ever reaches him. The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 358 because the legislation intrudes on womens reproductive freedom and access to health care and unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices that women and their families have today, The White House said in a statement. That said, the bills success in the House should lead those who support womens right to have an abortionand womens safety in generalto think long and hard about what kinds of legislation could ultimately pass if we elect a socially conservative president in 2012. Below watch Rep Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) share a personal story from her life in which an abortion was a medical necessity.LinkCongresswoman Jackie Speier has several times told her personal story about when she needed an abortion. If the Republicans had their way, she could have been turned away from one hospital, with no obligation to refer her to another hospital, and she could well have died.The Republicans have the nerve to call this the 'Protect Life Act'.