MICROSKIRTS
Effortless Method To Get Slim&Trim Body
Rapid weight loss Program Review
Now Easy Get Rid of Wrinkles
Rapid weight loss Program Review
Rapid weight loss Program Review
505
viewsI don't want the government paying for my healthcare, but I do want them dictating it
By Jessica.M, Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 3 commentsRecently, the Florida Legislature passed a bill which require women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound and view it. Additionally, it prohibits private insurers from covering the procedure.
On the surface, viewing an ultrasound is about informed consent and who can argue with more information? The problem is, this isn't standard medical care and the legislature isn't the medical board or the American Medical Association or the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. That is, they aren't qualified to determine standards of care or how best to ensure that women get the information they need, when they need it. This isn't about providing safe healthcare for women. This is about creating obstacles - making it more expensive, more difficult to get, making women feel guilty.
We knew this was coming, didn't we?
Despite promises from the Obama administration that 'if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance', healthcare reform passed with provisions that will inevitably make health insurers drop abortion coverage. In fact, this bill goes further than the controversial restrictions in the Federal reform bill by prohibiting private insurers from covering abortion (currently more than 86% of private insurers cover the procedure).
This attack is a direct intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship and the legislature is trying to do the job that is the job of the medical boards, which is to decide what the best standard of medical care is. This would be like the legislature mandating that before, say, donating a kidney, that you must read stories about donors whose health have been jeopardized by the process. Ironically, and I know it's trite to point this out, the attacks on abortion rights are coming from the Republicans - the "I don't want the government paying for my healthcare, but I do want them dictating it" Republicans - though to their credit, a few Republicans did break with party lines to vote against the bill.
Now, the medical boards have practices in place to ensure a balance between information and mental distress of the patient. They have standards in place to ensure that medicine is practiced safely and patients aren't being subjected to harmful treatments or negligent care. There are even measures in place to punish doctors who fail to provide the best standard of care to their patients. If there were a problem with the medical boards, then the bill should be about that, not about this single procedure (which, btw, is the most common procedure annually).
This bill really isn't about women's health. It really is about making us less able to have healthcare. It really is about inserting politics in the most private decisions women make in their lives.
The bill will soon be headed to Governor Crist for, we hope, veto. Crist recently announced that he will be running as an independent for the Senate seat vacated by Mel Martinez. Hopefully, his new independent outlook will make him do what's right, which is veto a bill which puts politics before healthcare
Bookmark/Search this post with:
3 Comments
Geez. I thought we would be
Geez. I thought we would be LIGHT years ahead on women's reproductive rights by 2010. Why does it feel like 1976 all over again.
Elect feminists
Indeed!
A few thoughts have been flying around in my head recently. This wouldn't even be a question if we knew that the governor would veto the bill.
This is why it's so important to elect feminists to all levels of government. Our rights haven't been attacked in a full-on attack with good reason. By slowly eroding it, most people (i.e. those with means to get around any restrictions) are still able to exercise their rights until the groundwork has been laid for completely overturning Roe v. Wade. There's no public out-cry, because the majority of the public is simply not tapped into the small nuances that "mandatory ultrasounds" mean for their overall rights.
All of these things - called TRAP (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) are transparent in their aim to make it more difficult, if not impossible, to access abortion. For example, abortions could be provided by someone simply trained in the procedure, not necessarily a doctor, but laws require that a doctor perform it. Even medical abortion, which is just dispensing of pills, must (depending on which state) be overseen by a doctor. This is an unnecessary requirement, but it is touted as being about women's health - when it is really about making it more expensive and less available (as doctors are paid more and few doctors are trained in the procedure in medical school). In many places, the type of clinic is restricted to being a separate practice, making it easier to target for pickets and, sadly, clinic violence.
It's all well and good to say that we have a right, but if we can't afford it, can't travel to get it (close to 80% of Florida's counties have NO abortion provider, women in these counties must travel to seek abortions), can't get childcare while we're there (60% of women who seek abortions are already parents), can't get time off from work or school for the procedure (most clinics only have one or two days when they do abortions), would be kicked out of our homes if our parents knew and can't navigate the complicated judicial bypass process (Florida has a parental notification law), must have state-mandated counseling (e.g. some states mandate that the "pain" the fetus feels be described to women, even though this is medically inaccurate), have to pay for unnecessary ultrasounds - well, I could go on and on - all of this is meant to make it darned difficult for women to get abortions. Automatically, you can start thinking of the types of women who are being stalled or barred from getting safe abortions because of these restrictions. They're the same women who have difficulty getting affordable birth control.
So, no, the issue isn't settled. We have miles to go and we have to work to elect feminists if we want to change it.
Wow, scary
I completely agree that we need to elect feminists. It's disturbing how many "little" restrictions like this are cropping up and chipping away at abortion access. As you said, these are slipped in so most of us never object until the laws are already in place. Anti-abortion activists seem to be organized and strategic this way. How do they do that?
Participate More