Weighing in on Stupak

So, Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan tried a trick play during the Health Care "game". Stupak said, if the Speaker of the House would allow consideration of his amendment, he would guarantee a certain number of reluctant representatives would vote for the full Health Care Bill. Something must have gone wrong in that brief moment between mouth and ear, because while the reluctant representatives voted FOR HIS amendment, they did not vote in favor of the full Health Care Bill.

This "trick play" in the "game" effectively takes away a legal medical procedure for women who choose the public option. According to The LA Times, the Stupak amendment "would prohibit federal dollars from being used to buy any policy offered through the exchange that covered abortions other than those related to rape, incest or danger to the mother's life. It also would require insurers that offered elective abortion coverage through the exchange to also offer policies "identical in every respect" except that they did not cover such abortions. The main effects of the amendment would be to stop anyone receiving a federal subsidy from buying a comprehensive health insurance policy that covered elective abortions, and to bar the proposed government-run insurance plan (a.k.a. the "public option") from covering such procedures. The amendment would allow insurers to offer "supplemental" policies that covered abortions, but their customers could not use federal subsidies to buy them." In essence, what Rep. Stupak is saying, if you're not able to afford insurance, you are SOL if you want to control your own body. Your options are limited, and if you decide to go ahead with the birth, your government will probably not help you with the expenses of raising that child, and I wouldn't be surprised if Rep. Stupak rails against you in the House at some future date for being irresponsible and having so many children that you cannot support.

I wish I could drill a hole in his head (and in the heads of others like him), and get directly to the part of the brain that doesn't understand that abortion is a medical procedure, the right to which is protected by law. What if his doctor said to him, "Stupak, you need to have a procedure. But I'm sorry--you can't afford it, and insurance doesn't cover it. Go home and make the best of it."? The scary thing is, he does understand, and it bugs the shit out of him. His "trick play" is a end-run around the legal right for a woman to choose. The travesty is that it got into the final bill; the game he's playing could become law. His game could have dire consequences in the lives of women, and he doesn't care.

While others were expressing outrage at Stupak's amendment, I found myself feeling resigned. It's just that it's been done so many times before; some men are always trying to control women in any way they can--killing abortion doctors, bombing clinics, instituting state "regulations" that force women's clinics to close, withholding money. They just can't stand it that a woman can have utter control over something they cannot.

As I was writing, I was reminded of that quote: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." And, I might add, safe, fully funded, and readily available on every street corner.

Indeed.