Health Bill Shouldn’t Be a Dictator

On 2/4, PPNEO’s Wooster Health Center Manager, Heidi Sands, had her letter to the editor titled, “Health Bill Shouldn’t Be a Dictator,” published in the Wooster Daily Record and on its website. The letter called for eliminating abortion ban amendments in the final health care reform package. She wrote as a concerned citizen of Wooster, not on behalf of PPNEO.

Editor:

Health care reform is supposed to be about increasing access to quality, affordable health care, not about abortion politics. But with the Stupak and Nelson abortion ban amendments now in the House and Senate health care bills, health care reform is turning into just another opportunity for politicians to remind women who really has control over their bodies, their health care decisions and the medical procedures they can access.

It's outrageous. The Stupak and Nelson abortion ban language go way beyond the longstanding Hyde amendment that prohibits federal funding for abortion care. These amendments don't just prohibit tax dollars from supporting abortion coverage. They restrict the kind of health care policies Americans can buy with their own money.

It's insulting. Medical procedures exclusive to men have never been held to a vote on the floor of the United States Congress. In fact, the Stupak and Nelson abortion ban amendments would not exist if men needed abortions.

Politicians would be falling all over themselves to see that abortion was covered. But it probably shouldn't be surprising. Women have always experienced discrimination. We live in a society that still punishes and compromises women's sexual health at the same time that it celebrates male sexual health (see Viagra and Cialis commercials).

Women do not plan to have unintended pregnancies or medically complicated pregnancies that require a pregnancy to end. Our health care and insurance options shouldn't be limited just because some politicians think it will help win re-election. We want our government to fix health care, not to dictate what kind of private health insurance Americans can buy with their own money.

Heidi Sands, Wooster