Women thrown under the bus

This afternoon at 4 pm, Bart Stupak announced that he had made a deal with President Obama to deny women access to reporductve health care abortion services through an Executive Order that will be signed when Obama signs the health insurance (not health care) reform bill.  Here's National NOW's President's statement on this decision by mostly white men to control the lives, bodies, and health of women.

President Obama Breaks Faith with Women

Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill
March 21, 2010


The National Organization for Women is incensed that President Barack Obama agreed today to issue an executive order designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women's access to abortion. Through this order, the president has announced he will lend the weight of his office and the entire executive branch to the anti-abortion measures included in the Senate bill, which the House is now prepared to pass.

President Obama campaigned as a pro-choice president, but his actions today suggest that his commitment to reproductive health care is shaky at best. Contrary to language in the draft of the executive order and repeated assertions in the news, the Hyde Amendment is not settled law -- it is an illegitimate tack-on to an annual must-pass appropriations bill. NOW has a longstanding objection to Hyde and, in fact, was looking forward to working with this president and Congress to bring an end to these restrictions. We see now that we have our work cut out for us far beyond what we ever anticipated. The message we have received today is that it is acceptable to negotiate health care on the backs of women, and we couldn't disagree more.

We need to give Bart Stupak and Joe Pitts their pink slips.  They need to be fired for crafting the Stupak-Pitts amendment.  This is the amendment that was in the House version of the bill that that resulted in today's Executive Order announcement in order to get the anti-choice Representatives to vote for the bill.  With this so-called compromise, women have now been thrown under the bus and into the back alleys.

You can help do that.  The National NOW PAC has endorsed Connie Saltonstall against Bart Stupak in his  primary in Michigan because of his anti-choice zealotry. The NOW PAC also endorsed Lois Herr against Joe Pitts here in Pennsylvania for similar reasons. You can donate to their campaigns at http://actblue.com/page/feminist  (Saltonstall) and at http://actblue.com/page/elect-herr-NOW (Herr).

Lois Herr (PA-16)	$

Connie Saltonstall (MI-01)	$