Supreme Court Victory: 19 Million Uninsured Women Win

In a big win for women’s health, the Supreme Court ruled this morning that the Affordable Care Act is, indeed, constitutional. What that means is that we’re on track for full implementation of many benefits, including:

• Women’s health services, like mammograms, pap smears, birth control and cancer screenings, will be available with no co-pay;
• Women will no longer have to pay more than men for the same insurance coverage;
• Insurers can’t deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions; and
• Insurers can’t cancel our policies if we develop breast cancer or other serious illnesses.

However, the court put limits on the Medicaid expansion, ruling that the federal government cannot withdraw existing Medicaid funding if a state chooses not to comply with the expansion. This provision was expected to add nearly 30 million more people to the program. You can be certain that the Ms. Foundation and its grantees will be working hard across the states to ensure that women are not excluded from the health care system due to this ruling.

On a lighter note, the Ms. staff shared some laughs together throughout this joyous day, with the Affordable Care Cat and When SCOTUS Upheld Obamacare. We hope you’re able to smile, as well, content with the knowledge that health care reform is no longer in jeopardy.

Celebrating Affordable Health Care

Women’s bodies are now the main battleground in the fight for women’s rights. Conservative male pundits, legislators, and political commentators have become more and more audacious and hostile in their attempts to control women’s lives through their bodies. But as we have seen in recent weeks these attacks have had the reverse effect: this reactive environment has galvanized women to stand up, to fight for our rights, and to fight to make the health care law work for us.

So join us, and the Coalition to Protect Women's Health Care, today, as we celebrate 'women’s day' and the two-year anniversary -- the Friday March 23rd -- of the Affordable Care Act. Let’s fight to take back control of our own bodies.

As the National Women’s Law Center shows, health care reform is already helping women and families. It’s making health care more affordable for both insured and uninsured women; it has stopped insurance companies from making the fact of being a woman a “pre-existing” condition; it will (hopefully) ensure that women’s preventative health is universally covered. We know that if implemented correctly -- with women’s health given priority and coverage -- the Affordable Care Act will have a huge impact for women across the country.

But unfortunately there is a ways to go.

The New York Times reports that there is still a gender gap in affordability and the toxic political and cultural environment has made the few gains we have achieved vulnerable to attack. We know that health care reform is good for women, but we must continue to push for positive policy and implementation. That is why we are asking you to help us celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and stand together with us for women’s health!

You can:

• Get involved locally and press for the implementation of health care reform in your state by finding your nearest chapter of Raising Women’s Voices.
• Tweet about the health care law using the hashtag #herhealth, or just follow the conversation at #herhealth.
• Show your support on facebook by sharing the image from this post.
• Join the movement and have a say by uploading a video for the Coalition's "I Have a Say" campaign.
• Attend or volunteer at the Women's Visibility Event at the Supreme Court on March 27th. Monday, March 26th marks the first day of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

We must stand tall and show that we will not be bullied by rhetoric or political attacks. We must show that we will stand strong for women’s health.

One Step Closer to Reforming Women’s -- and Communities’ -- Health Nationwide

[August 1, 2011 Update: Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, accepted the Institute of Medicine recommendations that key preventive health services for women, including contraception, be covered by insurance without co-pays or deductibles. More.]


After learning that a record number of anti-choice laws were passed in the first half of 2011, we were ready for some good news.

Now, thanks to an independent committee of medical and health experts charged with recommending how health care reform should consider women’s preventive health, we have something to cheer. If the Department of Health and Human Services accepts the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) findings, released last Wednesday, women may soon have far greater access to family planning and a range of services intended to help keep women—and their families and communities—healthy. 

Among the most groundbreaking—and contentious—of the committee’s evidence-based suggestions is that insurance companies eliminate co-pays and deductibles for contraception, paving the way for millions of women to access the complete range of FDA-approved methods. Once law, this would mark an enormous milestone in the women’s reproductive health movement, which has long sought to remove the barrier of cost to family planning.

Read more »

Health Care Reform Turns One!

Last month, in the wake of Congressional attempts to repeal health care reform, and just shy of the law's first anniversary this week, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll that produced startling results: in total, nearly half the country believed that the Affordable Care Act had either been repealed (22 percent) or didn't know enough to say whether it was still law (26 percent).

Wow. This means that not only is there still great confusion over the content of health care reform -- but that the far-right media machine touted the word "repeal" so much that a huge swath of the country began to think its demise was fait accompli. Which is far from the truth, of course: House Republicans knew their vote was a media stunt from the beginning, as repeal was unlikely to pass in the Senate and President Obama's veto was guaranteed.

To be fair, the Affordable Care Act is a mammoth piece of legislation, and with some of the provisions in effect, but many on hold until 2014, it is difficult for nearly anyone to discern how the law could -- or already does -- benefit them, their neighbors, or the country.

That's why this Wednesday, March 23, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, we must do two things: reeducate ourselves about its benefits, and recommit to doing our own PR for the law.

Our grantees -- national and community-based organizations advocating for women's reproductive rights, health and justice -- will help us teach ourselves and others. On March 23, and into next week, several of them will host webinars and events across the US, share fact sheets [pdf] and other useful materials, and provide a platform for women to tell their stories about how health care reform is already producing meaningful results in their lives.

A year into this historic vote -- thanks to groups like the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, National Women's Law Center, and Raising Women's Voices, a coalition of which many of our grantees are core members -- we have even more information to make our case: Instead of simply discussing what the legislation could do, as we did before it became law, we can now discuss what it is doing -- the tangible difference it has made for women, families and communities to date.

And the stakes couldn't be higher. Amidst the haze of confusion produced by the Right's "job-killing" or deficit-swelling claims, conservative legislators continue to try to chip away at health care reform -- their most recent effort an attempt to deny federal funding for core components of the law. So while many apparently think "repeal" is a done deal, neither should we accept that "reform" is in the bag. Yes, the law is on the books. That is a tremendous victory. But as we celebrate on Wednesday, let's also work to be sure we'll be celebrating for years to come.

Memo to the Right: Preventing Pregnancy IS a Preventive Service

Yesterday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a repeal of the Affordable Care Act -- our nation's boldest, if flawed, step in the direction of health care equity since the New Deal. While this is tremendously disconcerting, little will happen as an immediate result. Democrats in the Senate, who still hold a slim majority, have vowed to block a vote for repeal, leaving the House vote in Congressional limbo.

While this means, for the time being, that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay -- a very good thing for the millions of people who will benefit from the law, many of them women -- it doesn't mean it isn't in jeopardy. The health-care law faces continued attacks at the state level, in the judiciary, and will likely be taken up again in Congress as House Republicans attempt to undo it piece by piece. What's more, certain provisions of health care reform, as passed, are still being debated by federal agencies -- with significant implications for women. 

High on the list of provisions in question is coverage of birth control -- specifically, whether new insurance plans will be required to provide free coverage of contraception as part of the preventative care services mandated by the Affordable Care Act, and supported by the Women's Health Amendment. This is not a small issue. If coverage of birth control is not included as basic, preventative care, low-income women and women of color (many of whom are disproportionately poor) will continue to face an undue economic burden in protecting their reproductive health. In short, if coverage is not an option, many women will continue to find themselves priced out of the market for contraception, resulting in more unplanned pregnancies and potentially higher abortion rates -- a fate you'd think the anti-choice movement would be working to avoid at all costs.

Read more »

Health Care in the House: Urge Your Reps to Vote NO on Repeal!

We told you last week to expect it this week, and now here it is: tomorrow, Wednesday, House Republicans have scheduled a vote to repeal health care reform.

A waste of time, you say? Yes. Money? Absolutely. The wrong priorities for our nation in a time of few jobs and uneven recovery? We agree completely. But with ultra-conservatives now in control of the House, it looks like this largely symbolic but dangerous gesture will move forward -- despite the fact that health care reform is already improving the lives of millions of women and families by providing them access to affordable health care coverage and making sure that coverage doesn't drop them once they become sick (or have a C-section, or get raped).

But Republican control of the House doesn't mean others don't have a voice. A number of Ms. Foundation grantees are urging their constituents to take action by calling members of Congress and letting them know just how outraged you are by these attempts to roll back progress on the health care front.

Grantees Raising Women's Voices, the National Women's Law Center and the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum are all running campaigns to get people on the phones and sending emails to make sure our representatives know just how strongly we oppose repeal -- and the offensive "job-killing" rhetoric Conservatives have misguidedly attached to it (see today's New York Times for a thorough repudiation of that logic).

If you believe as much as ever that all Americans deserve access to affordable and fair health care, now is the time to make your voice heard: Call Congress today and tell them to vote NO on the Repeal of Health Care Reform! Time is short -- act now!

Vote to Repeal Health Care Law Still Looms

Had not the horrors in Arizona taken place this past weekend, today, the US House of Representatives would have staged a largely ceremonial but still dangerous vote on the repeal of health care reform. Ceremonial because even if the vote had passed the House, it wouldn't have passed the Senate (where Democrats still hold a slim majority); dangerous, because it continues to lay the foundation for a repeal of these laws at the state level and "dismantling the law piece by piece."

That would spell real trouble for millions of low- and middle-income people -- many of them women, children and people of color -- who would once again find themselves shut out of the health care system if the repeal takes place.

For women, the stakes in this debate are incredibly high. As our friends over at Womenstake, the National Women's Law Center blog, noted:

Repealing the law will return us to the days when women were treated like a pre-existing condition. Insurance companies will be allowed to drop coverage when an enrollee gets sick and deny women coverage if they’ve had a C-section, breast or cervical cancer, or received medical treatment for domestic or sexual violence. Repeal will keep 11 million women from receiving subsidies to help them buy affordable health insurance and prevent 4.5 million low-income women from becoming eligible for coverage through Medicaid.

Consider that just the tip of the iceberg. Our recent grantee Raising Women's Voices -- a leading voice on the importance of health care reform to women -- published a useful fact sheet on the benefits women gained from health care reform in 2010, and just highlighted a few more women friendly policies that will go into effect in 2011, if nothing changes. These include:

• Lowering prescription costs for seniors (many of them women);
• Providing free preventive services, such as vaccinations and cancer screenings, for seniors on Medicare; and
• Requiring insurers to give us rebates if they don't spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on medical care.

But if repeal efforts gain any foothold, these benefits -- along with others like the requirement that new insurance plans provide preventive health care and screenings (such as pap smears and mammograms) for free -- would be gone with the wind.

Read more »

Women with Pre-existing Conditions Denied Abortion Coverage

Did you know that under our nation's new health care laws, women with pre-existing conditions will still be denied access to abortion coverage?

It's shocking but true: under the rules issued by the Department of Health and Human Services for the new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans, women with serious medical conditions (like cancer, heart disease or diabetes) would be prevented from receiving coverage for pregnancy-ending procedures -- even if these pregnancies put their lives at risk.

Ms. Foundation grantees the National Women's Law Center, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and West Virginia Free have added their names to a growing list of organizations and individuals asking HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reconsider these restrictions. Educate yourself about what these new rules could mean for millions of American families by reading this letter [pdf], sent earlier this week to Secretary Sebelius, or by watching the video below, created by Raising Women's Voices.

Help NLIRH Ensure Contraception is Prevention in Health Reform Law

Coverage for contraception is still on shaky ground as the health care reform laws are beginning to be enacted. The US Department of Health and Human Services is currently in the process of determining what “preventive services” means, and birth control is one of the most hotly contested arenas. For you and the women you love, this means that women still have to fight for the right to fair and equitable health care in this country. And with the backlash against health care reform growing, we all need to support the work of our colleagues at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) who fight to bring systemic and lasting change through the new law.

Help them in their quest. Call your representatives to demand that prevention is defined to include birth control.

Read more »

[Audio] Program Officer Sangeeta Budhiraja Explores Grantee Solutions in Radio Interview

Last Tuesday Ms. Foundation Program Officer Sangeeta Budhiraja was featured on Juggling Act with Dr. Lori Sokol. The show on Connecticut's AM1490 WGCH strives “to empower individuals to triumph over gender-related societal limits so they can reach their full potential unhindered.”

The Ms. Foundation’s wonderful Sangeeta Budhiraja jumped right into this conversation, addressing the importance of affordable child care, the fight for New York State’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, and the future of health care. Sangeeta talked eloquently and informatively about these important social issues that affect not just women but everyone in our society, and the work of the Foundation’s grantees advocating for just and inclusive solutions. She elucidated the Ms. Foundation’s particular belief that society can only reach its full potential when power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, sexuality, or age and explained why the Foundation provides support to a broad range of seemingly disparate organizations working on issues ranging from reproductive justice, to immigrant rights, to sexual violence, and health care.

Download the full interview [mp3] or listen on the player below [27:05].

Two Upcoming Conference Calls: Learn About Impact of Health Reform on Women, Families and Immigrants

Following are two great upcoming opportunities offered by Ms. Foundation grantee partners to learn more about how the new health-care reform bill will both help and harm women and families, including immigrants.

Wednesday, April 7, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) will host a virtual "Cafecito on Health Reform," (an informal discussion over coffee via conference call) to share their perspectives on the new legislation. NLIRH writes:

Health care reform was recently signed into law, however, for Latinas, the result is a mixed-bag. Join us to learn about provisions that help and hurt women and immigrants, and the timeline for implementation of benefits. You will also hear about state based initiatives being proposed and how this can affect health care reform in your state.

The call will be conducted in English from 12-1pm EST, and in Spanish from 1-2pm EST. Register for the NLIRH cafecito in English here and in Spanish here.

Thursday, April 8, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), featured today in the New York Times article, "Overhaul Will Lower the Costs of Being a Woman," will be hosting a special webinar, "How Women Will Benefit from Health Care Reform," from 1-2pm EST. NWLC writes:

Now that health care reform is the law of the land, it’s time to celebrate and get the facts about the real changes for women’s lives. To understand how this important victory will benefit women and their families register for our special webinar about how health care reform will benefit women.

During the webinar, we’ll provide a summary of the key provisions impacting women and their families and outline what to expect with the new law in effect. We’ll also explain what the restrictions on abortion coverage mean for women and talk about the fight that lies ahead to fix these dangerous barriers.

Register for the NWLC event here.

Also, check out another new resource from our grantee, Raising Women's Voices, on the pros and cons of health care reform [pdf].

Health Care Reform Revives Funding for Failed Abstinence-Only Approach

Federal funding for abortion, as we well know, has been front and center in the health-care debate. But what has received far less attention is the revival of federal funding for Bush-era abstinence-only-until-marriage programs (yep, the ones that prohibit any discussion of the benefits of contraception) in the final health-care bill. We find this incredibly hard to believe. After celebrating a long-fought, hard-won victory last year when President Obama let federal funding for the failed abstinence-only approach lapse, we join our grantees and other activists who are shocked and dismayed that such a discredited program is yet again alive.

Still, it is true: the final health-care reform bill includes funding – to the tune of $50 million a year – for the abstinence-only-until-marriage initiative, Title V. This reinstatement flies in the face of evidence – including a study commissioned by the federal government – that these programs are not only unsuccessful, but harmful. Evidence that Congress, says Joseph DiNorcia, Jr., president and CEO of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), a Ms. Foundation grantee partner, is well aware of:

[Congress has] the facts. They know that this program is harmful to young people, uses federal dollars to spread misinformation, fear, and shame, and is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. Who decided it was a good idea to forgo saving a quarter-of-a-billion dollars over the next five years and continue funding for a failed program that leaves young people at risk? Why this program is being brought back from the dead is a mystery.

Whatever the impetus, this is a frustrating setback for advocates of medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education who for years worked tirelessly to convince state after state to reject abstinence-only-until-marriage funding. Now advocates will be forced – yet again – to resort to this approach. In the words of James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, also a Ms. Foundation grantee partner: “Together, we now have even more to do. We need to convince every governor in America to reject the bad funding for Title V programs and accept the good funding for evidence-based, comprehensive programs.”

It is also true that the health-care bill provides $75 million per year over five years for a new evidence-based “personal responsibility education program,” [see this analysis by the Guttmacher Institute] intended to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. But the implications of the nonsensical abstinence-only backtrack cannot be ignored: forced to resurrect their strategy to convince states to refuse abstinence-only funding, advocates will likely have to divert resources from the implementation of evidence-based, comprehensive sexuality education – district by district, school by school – which still, for all intents and purposes, remains a monumental task.

Historic Health Care Vote: Celebrate and Recommit to Rights of Women, Low-Income People and People of Color

There is absolutely no doubt that last night's House vote for health care reform was historic. True, it fell short in many ways -- by further restricting women's -- particularly low-income women's -- access to abortion, prohibiting immigrants from buying insurance from the exchange, and omitting a public option. But it is a monumental step nonetheless, and we applaud Democratic members of Congress who persevered amidst scare tactics and misguided rhetoric to lay the foundation for significant social change.

Early last fall, as the health-care debate was in full swing, the Ms. Foundation issued rapid-response grants to Raising Women's Voices and Women of Color United for Health Reform to mobilize greater support for and awareness about the urgent health-care priorities of low-income women and women of color, including immigrant women. Yesterday, Raising Women's Voices and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, a founding member of Women of Color United, each welcomed the House vote and recognized elements of their platforms in the final bill:

Raising Women's Voices:

The House of Representatives’ vote tonight for health care reform is a courageous and historic accomplishment. ...In the same way that Social Security and Medicare improved the health and wellbeing of so many Americans, the health reform plan approved by the House tonight will make a real and significant difference in the lives of millions of our families...and communities.

Because of this vote, women will gain health security because insurers will no longer be able to deny insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, like breast cancer; and we will no longer suffer from “gender rating” that insurers use to charge women more than men for the same policies. We will also gain from the availability of affordable health insurance for millions more families and from the guarantee that maternity care will be covered. Screening and preventive services will be available without any cost-sharing barriers.

We owe a debt of thanks to the women who raised their voices -- over many, many years and especially over the last 18 months -- to bring about these important reforms. ...These women insisted that public policy respond to the needs of the people.

With great disappointment, we acknowledge that this victory came at a cost.... The legislation imposes unfair and unnecessary burdens on women who choose to purchase abortion coverage and will expand significantly the pool of women who are not able to purchase coverage for this basic reproductive health care. ... We recommit ourselves to working to eliminate this unjust and punitive policy which prevents low-income women from receiving the comprehensive reproductive health care they need.

...On balance we look back at the woman's vision for quality, affordable health care developed and issued by Raising Women’s Voices and see that the bill takes very substantial steps toward those goals. Read RWV's full response here.

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH):

NLIRH commends Congress and the Administration for continuing to push for much-needed health reform and we are pleased to see that some critical pieces affecting our community have been addressed in the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act.

...[T]he reconciliation package will cover an estimated 9 million uninsured Latinos and increase funding for community health centers, which is a lifeline for many in our neighborhoods. In addition, 4.4 million Americans in Puerto Rico and territories will receive $6.3 billion in new Medicaid funding, increased flexibility in how to use federal funding, access to the Exchange and $1 billion in subsides for low-income residents.

We understand that this legislation is not perfect. NLIRH has deep concerns about Latino immigrants and their families who will be left on the sidelines even as 31 million currently uninsured Americans celebrate the end to their long wait for reform.

...If Heath Care Reform passes, efforts to address the following priorities must commence immediately:

* Fix Nelson: the two-check provision is unworkable and will enact some of the most egregious and detrimental setbacks to abortion rights since the seventies.

* Include immigrant women: over half of all immigrants are women, and 53% of all immigrants are from Latin America.

* Parity for Puerto Rico: though the reconciliation provisions are better than what the Senate proposed, residents of Puerto Rico are still a long ways away from receiving Medicaid and other federal health care support at the same level as other states of the Union.

If health reform passes, NLIRH will celebrate.... But we will also renew our commitment to fight for the human right of all people - regardless of legal status or zip code - to health, dignity and justice. Read NLIRH's full response here.

Health Care Reform Countdown - Take Action Today

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on health care reform legislation this week. Two Ms. Foundation grantees, the National Women's Law Center and Raising Women's Voices have called for your voice of support. Tell your representatives that "women and their families need you to pass the comprehensive health reform bills."

Tell Congress to Pass Comprehensive Health Care
Take action: National Women's Law Center
Take action: Raising Women's Voices

Health Reform - Raising Women's Voices Calls for Your Voice Now

Raising Women's Voices, a Ms. Foundation movement building and health care grantee asks you to contact your representative (especially if they are on the list below) and to call for health reform that maintains women's reproductive rights. They ask:

Tell them this is their chance to help women and our families get the health care we need. The current system is failing millions of us and they must take action to fix it.

Then make sure to let them know you're paying attention to what happens in Congress and won't accept any side agreements to allow a vote on Rep. Bart Stupak's anti-abortion language. Real reform must not roll back our rights to comprehensive reproductive health care!

The list below includes the representatives Raising Women's Voices wants to target. It includes Democratic representatives who not firmly in support of the bill (8 March 2010).

Firm no
Dan Boren (Okla.) *
Bobby Bright (Ala.) *
Artur Davis (Ala.) *
Larry Kissell (N.C.)
Dennis Kucinich (Ohio)
Frank Kratovil (Md.)
Walt Minnick (Idaho)
Collin Peterson (Minn.) *
Mike Ross (Ark.) *
Ike Skelton (Mo.) *
Gene Taylor (Miss.) *

Leaning No
Michael Arcuri (N.Y.) (Y)

Undecided
Brian Baird (Wash.)
Marion Berry (Ark.) * (Y)
John Boccieri (Ohio) *
Dennis Cardoza (Calif.) * (Y)
Kathleen Dahlkemper (Pa.) * (Y)
Steve Driehaus (Ohio) * (Y)
Bart Gordon (Tenn.) *
Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio) (Y)
Ron Kind (Wis.) (Y)
Dan Maffei (N.Y.) (Y)
Scott Murphy (N.Y.)
Solomon Ortiz (Texas) * (Y)
Tom Perriello (Va.) * (Y)
Nick Rahall (W.Va.) * (Y)
John Spratt (S.C.) * (Y)
Bart Stupak (Mich.) * (Y)
John Tanner (Tenn.) *

Leaning Yes
Russ Carnahan (Mo.) (Y)
Jim Oberstar (Minn.) * (Y)

No comment
Mike Doyle (Pa.) * (Y)

* — Voted for Stupak amendment in Nov.
(Y) — Voted yes in November

Note: Spokesmen for Berry, Driehaus and Stupak on Monday said their bosses will vote against the bill unless the Stupak language is adopted. Stupak has said a dozen lawmakers who voted for the House measure could change their votes based on the abortion provisions.

Source: Dems on Healthcare, The Hill.

You can use the following form to contact your representative. Read the full message from Raising Women's Voices.

Health Care and Immigrant Women's Rights: New York Times Letter by Ms. Foundation Grantee

As we noted in our last post, Ms. Foundation grantees like the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health are connecting health care reform to key issues like immigrants' rights. Yesterday, NLIRH Executive Director Sylvia Henriquez addressed this critical link in a letter to the editor published by the New York Times:

To the Editor:

Re “Coverage Without Borders,” by Roger Mahony (Op-Ed, Dec. 8):

Cardinal Mahony’s article in favor of health care access for immigrants is an important message to elected officials grappling with reform legislation. Sadly, I couldn’t help note the irony of advocating on behalf of immigrants, while in the same breath urging policy makers to deny reproductive health care for millions of women. Over half of all immigrants are women.

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health knows very well the devastating impact of making abortion elusive for those who can’t pay with personal funds. Latinas are among the poorest in this country and tend to lack access to health insurance in higher numbers than other groups. In fact, one in four women living in poverty who wants to choose abortion can’t because politicians prevent federal tax dollars from covering the procedure.

The lesson learned from the last three decades of misguided federal policy on abortion is that creating a two-tier system of access to health care is unfair, punitive and harmful.

To quote Cardinal Mahony: “To allow people’s basic health needs to be trumped by divisive politics violates American standards of decency and compassion.” We couldn’t agree more.

Silvia Henriquez
Executive Director
National Latina Institute
for Reproductive Health
New York, Dec. 8, 2009

Stop Stupak -- The Reinforcements

"The reinforcements have arrived!" exclaimed one legislator in response to the hundreds of women’s health advocates who poured into Washington, DC on December 2. More than 500 advocates from 30 states across the country demanded that the final version of health care reform legislation not include language further restricting women’s access to abortion coverage.

Ms. Foundation grantees were a visible, powerful presence during last Wednesday’s “Rally and Lobby Day.” Notably, representatives of grantee partners National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective took to the stage to speak to the need to connect the fight for women’s reproductive health, rights and justice to other social justice movements, including immigrants’ rights and environmental justice. They joined our other health care grantees we reported on last week.

Ms. Foundation grantee organizations are leaders in the growing reproductive justice movement, which responds directly to the impact of low-income women’s lack of economic, social and political power on the full-range of reproductive health decisions. Read here for further examples of the reproductive justice work supported by the Ms. Foundation. To partner with us in this important work, make a gift; your contribution will be worth twice as much, thanks to a generous $100,000 challenge grant.

This afternoon, debate begins on the Nelson Amendment, the Senate version of Stupak Amendment. Read Ms. Foundation grantee partner Raising Women’s Voices coverage and analysis of the deliberations.

Reinforcements, indeed.

Stop Stupak!

This Wednesday, December 2, hundreds of women, including Ms. Foundation grantees, will head to Washington, D.C. to rally and lobby against a potential rollback of women’s basic rights that would deny abortion coverage to millions of women who currently have it and to millions more who lack access today. Click here for more information on the Stop Stupak Campaign.

It is extraordinary that in 2009 women’s right to reproductive care of their choosing is on the chopping block again. The Stupak Amendment is wrong and regressive, and goes well beyond reinforcing the Hyde Amendment—already harmful in its own right—despite what mainstream media is saying. As the Senate debates its health care bill, we expect them to do better. It is simply unacceptable—and contradictory—to trade away women’s access to reproductive services under the guise of expanding care. And who will be most impacted? Ultimately, all women and their families, but disproportionally low-income women and women of color. Once again, Congress runs the risk of creating another exclusionary policy when we should be striving for inclusive and equitable solutions—and most certainly within the context of the stated goals of health care reform.

Our health care grantee organizations Communications Consortium Media Center, Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need and Women of Color United for Health Reform are on the front lines mobilizing to prevent Stupak or a similar Senate amendment from becoming law. Together, they continue to elevate the voices of low-income women and women of color for truly inclusive, equitable reform.

Ms. Foundation Health Care Grantees On the Move

Ms. Foundation grantees Raising Women's Voices and the Women of Color United for Health Reform continue to work collectively to mobilize women nationwide on behalf of health care reform and lift up women's support and solutions for change in Washington, D.C. and at rallies, town halls and on airwaves across the U.S. These two groups received support from the Ms. Foundation in August for a last-minute push to ensure the voices of women--especially low-income women and women of color--are amplified in the health care debate.

Today, in an unprecedented call organized by Women of Color United (a coalition headed up by the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and the Black Women's Health Imperative), over 400 women of color activists discussed the need for just and inclusive reform in a conversation with Tina Tchen, Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Executive Director for the White House Council on Women and Girls and Caya Lewis, Outreach Director for the Health and Human Services Office of Health Reform and Former Health Staffer for Senator Edward Kennedy.

Recently, RWV co-founder Lois Uttley did a series of interviews with radio stations around the country on stations like WBAI in New York City; WHON in Richmond, Indiana; WIZM in La Crosse, Wisconsin; WGCV in Columbia, South Carolina; KXCI in Tucson, Arizona; KSFR in Santa Fe, NM; and on the Bev Smith show which airs in major cities nationwide. Last week, Women of Color United organized 28 activists in eight key states (AK, AR, FL, IN, ME, NC, ND, SD) to help place op-eds in their local papers.

Both groups have just released valuable new resources. Women of Color United issued "Health Reform Imperatives for Women and Communities of Color" and a fact sheet about women of color and the need for reform. RWV issued "What Women Want vs. What Women Get," a quick and easy analysis of the health care bills on the table and eight straightforward talking points for key improvements. The talking points are below and online [pdf]; there's also a longer version [pdf] with more detail -- check them out, pass them along, and RAISE YOUR VOICE for just and inclusive health care reform!

Raising Women's Voices
From Our Kitchen Table
What Women Want: The Health Reform Edition

1. Health coverage should start at birth and end at death, with no interruptions. We shouldn’t lose it when we change jobs, get divorced or move from one state to another.

2. Make it affordable. Use a sliding scale. Everybody should pay something, but some of us can pay more than others. Offer subsidies for those who can’t pay very much.

3. Make it fair. Don’t charge women more than men. Don’t let insurance companies refuse to cover people because they have diabetes, cancer, asthma or any other “pre-existing condition.”

4. Make it simple. Tell insurance companies to stop tricking us into buying policies that don’t cover the care we need. There should be no hidden clauses or surprises.

5. Make it better. Give us the high quality care that this country is capable of delivering, instead of extra tests and unneeded services that feed the bottom-line for drug companies or for-profit hospitals and medical systems at our expense. And fix the system so that poor people, people of color, people with disabilities and LGBT people get high quality care too.

6. Keep politics, politicians and ideology out of the decisions about which benefits should be included. This is health care, people!

7. Cover everybody! Stop arguing about whether we should cover undocumented immigrants or force legal immigrants to wait five years to be eligible. If they are living here as our neighbors, we want them to be healthy. Fixing the immigration system is a separate issue.

8. This should be a wellness system, not a sickness system. Sure, we want to have medical care when we get sick, but better preventive care and stronger public health measures in our own communities can help us stay healthy.

Learn more and find out how to add your voice to the debate on the Raising Women's Voices and Women of Color United websites.

Poll: Americans Support Keeping Health Care Reform Abortion Neutral

[1 October Update: The New York Times adds coverage: Senate Panel Rejects Tightening of Abortion Restrictions and an editorial: Abortion and Health Care Reform on the continuing debate.]

As the New York Times reports in its September 28 article, Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care, the struggle over women's reproductive rights rages on as Congress considers reform: "Abortion opponents in both the House and the Senate are seeking to block the millions of middle- and lower-income people who might receive federal insurance subsidies to help them buy health coverage from using the money on plans that cover abortion."

But while Republicans and some moderate Democrats are seeking to bargain away women's access to abortion through their health insurance plans, the Women Donors Network and the Communications Consortium Media Center have released a new poll [pdf] which finds overwhelmingly that "Americans support efforts to keep this health care reform package abortion neutral."

The poll, conducted by the Mellman Group, surveyed 1,000 likely voters on issues of health care reform and reproductive and maternal health and rights. Most significantly, the results reveal that:

• "Americans oppose using abortion as a means of derailing health care reform and oppose using health care reform as a means of expanding or restricting abortion;" and


• "Americans want maternity care as part of the basic benefit package offered under health care reform and want to make sure that women can access their medical care in those communities."

For extensive information about the health care debate and what's at stake for women, see womenandhealthcarereform.org, a joint project of the Reproductive Rights Action Circle of the Women Donors Network and the Communications Consortium Media Center.

To find out more about the Ms. Foundation for Women's two rapid response grants to bolster women's organizing for equitable health care in the final stretches of the reform debate, check out our recent posting: Ms. Foundation Grants Support Women's Health Care Reform Justice.