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Hatch Amendments Defeated, But Women's Health Still Hanging in the Balance

posted by Womenstake
Friday, October 2, 2009 at 1:24pm CDT

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights,
National Women's Law Center

We, and women across the United States, are holding our breaths this month waiting to see what kind of health care bill comes out of the Senate Finance Committee. Will the Senate Finance Committee run women under the bus, leaving millions of American women worse off?

Senators Hatch and Enzi have already proposed seven anti-woman amendments to take away access to abortion services that women already have, to eliminate coverage for abortion in health care reform, and to make it easier for pharmacists to refuse to dispense the medications that women need for their reproductive health. (For more on the amendments, check out NWLC's fact sheets.)

On Wednesday, Hatch’s abortion (Hatch C14) and conscience (Hatch C13) amendments both failed by a vote of 10-13. This gives us reason to hope. At the same time, we note that women’s health was here protected only by a narrow 3 votes. Women’s health may very well continue to hang tenuously in the balance as the bill continues to move through mark-up next week and then to the Senate floor later this month.

As the making of the health care bill continues, we hope that Congress will heed the resounding words of Senator Debbie Stabenow who stood up for women’s health this week. During debate over Hatch’s Abortion Amendment (Hatch C14), which proposed to ban coverage of abortion in private health insurance except by optional “riders,” Stabenow aptly stated:

"...As a woman, I find it offensive that in here– any woman, any family purchasing through the exchange, if they did not receive any tax credit, would be prohibited from having the full range of health care options that they may need covered... This is an unprecedented restriction on people who paid for their own health care insurance ... the assumption that somehow a woman or family would say, ‘you know some day we may have an unintended pregnancy, so we’ll get a separate rider or maybe my pregnancy is going to have a crisis, many, many crises, and so we’re going to find some other rider.’ In my judgment, I don’t even know how that would work."

Stabenow explained that Hatch’s “extreme” amendment would drastically change existing law and place an undue burden on women who want access to abortion services.

Thank you, Senator Debbie Stabenow, for standing up for women’s health. Let us follow her example. Contact your Members of Congress today and let it be known that women’s health must be protected in health reform.