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A political conspiracy to endanger women’s health

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Staff

Paige Johnson

It seems like a conspiracy plot straight out of a Margaret Atwood novel. Within the course of two weeks, mostly behind closed doors, politicians, bureaucrats and trustees strip reproductive health coverage from insurance plans covering thousands of female employees. It sounds like fantasy fiction, but the assault on reproductive health care coverage in North Carolina is all too real.

In late January, the Apex Town Council voted unanimously to eliminate abortion coverage from their town employees’ health plan. In short order, Wake County moved to deny all county employees abortion coverage without holding a public debate or vote.

Within two days of Wake County’s decision, the trustees of the N.C. League of Municipalities voted to remove abortion care from their Cigna administered plan. This decision, made entirely behind closed doors, affects more than 9,000 town and city employees.

As soon as Wake County’s decision became public, news reports revealed that state Rep. Paul Stam from Apex was behind the alarming move. Newspaper and television accounts suggest he threatened a lawsuit against city and county officials if they did not drop abortion coverage. His threat stemmed from an almost 30-year-old case, Stam v. North Carolina, in which citizen Paul Stam sued the state for helping low-income women pay for abortion care.

Legal minds, including constitutional experts at the American Civil Liberties Union, disagree. They have stated repeatedly that North Carolina law gives towns, municipalities and counties broad authority in offering their employees benefits. Surely, comprehensive health care qualifies as a benefit.

If there are clear disagreements about the merits of a potential lawsuit, then why are those in power jumping to cut workers’ benefits? The timing is interesting to say the least.

Health care reform on the national scene is stalled, but that doesn’t mean the rancor has stopped. Those who oppose any government action to expand health care know full well that exploiting the most contentious elements of the debate feed their side and rally their troops.

In the final weeks of December, the two bodies of Congress passed vastly different versions of health care reform. One element, though, united the two: In each bill, abortion care was the only safe and legal medical procedure excluded from coverage.

The Democrats gave in to members of their own party who swore they would never vote for a health care bill that included abortion, even though many of these were never going to vote for health care reform anyway.

The Republicans who joined Democrats in supporting the anti-abortion amendments, known as Stupak and Nelson, respectively, in the U.S. House and Senate, were certainly never going to vote for health care reform.

Strategically, women’s reproductive health care made an easy target, keeping the debate roiling for weeks. Many, of course, fought valiantly to keep abortion care coverage as part of the comprehensive plan. But in the end, leadership was willing to compromise on women’s health. And it got them nowhere.

Abortion is a safe and legal medical procedure. One out of every three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. Reproductive health services are part of comprehensive health care, which is why more than 80 percent of health plans currently cover abortion.

It would be a bitter irony if the dream of large-scale health care reform in this country led to a steady reduction in the number of health care plans covering abortion. But this is exactly what’s happening in North Carolina.

Tony Gurley, chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, was quoted in the Lincoln Tribune saying he wasn’t afraid “to use the abortion coverage issue as a political issue.” It seems those who oppose a woman’s right to choose never are.

There is no decision more profound than that of when or whether to be a parent. There is nothing more fundamental to a woman’s health and well-being than her ability to make childbearing decisions.

Perhaps the next round of the national health care debate has already started in North Carolina. If so, let’s ensure that women’s health not be made worse because of that debate.

Paige Johnson is the director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina.

4 thoughts on “A political conspiracy to endanger women’s health”

  1. Lois Wallenburg says:
    March 12, 2010 at 7:07 am

    you want to kill your baby? pay for it yourself.

  2. Myra says:
    March 12, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    Great op-ed! Thank you for your efforts to fight these restrictions!

  3. Art Wilson says:
    March 14, 2010 at 9:42 am

    Ms Johnson’s ranting is full of half-truths. She uses the word abortion fourteen times but neglects the key word “elective” in describing the abortion method in question. The “almost 30 year old case” mentioned is a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling that determined illegal the use of tax payer funds to pay for elective abortion. Through bureaucratic carelessness, neglect, etc. elective abortions have been included in state and county health care since 1999. Ms. Johnson’s ravings about closed door conspiracies are simply elected officials correcting an illegal oversight; the use of tax payer funds to support elective abortion. Yes, Ms. Johnson, as cruel as it is, a woman has the legal right to kill her baby. No, Ms. Johnson, she does not have the right to force tax paying citizens to fund the murder.

  4. Rachel Adams says:
    March 16, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    Whether one regards it as murder in ethical terms or not, it is legal by law. However, if what Wilson says is true, even this normally liberal minded person has to agree. I wouldn’t want my tax dollars funding “elective” abortions. If it were a matter of life and death and a decision needed to be made and an abortion followed…I could see it. But not “elective”, no. Just my opinion.

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