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Wake Up, Washington! Abortion Is Health Care
Recently, we sent out an Action Alert urging you to contact your senators about restricting amendments to health care that limit women's access to the full range of reproductive services, including abortion. Please, please, please take a moment to contact them if you haven't done so already.
Our friends in Congress desperately need to hear from us, because there seems to be a oft-repeated belief that abortion "bogs down" the health care debate. This isn't true. Those same opining opponents of women's fundamental right to self-determination are the same folks who won't vote for meaningful health care reform anyway.
A majority of the public has indicated that they do want any health care reform package to cover abortion. What's more, the overwhelming majority of employer-sponsored health insurance plans do cover abortion; in essence, new, misguided restrictions to abortion represent not the status quo (mistakenly suggested by some of our allies in Congress), but a frightening rollback for women's health.
Your representatives need to hear from you immediately. Urge them to do the right thing and stand up for all women.
Otherwise, they have nothing to say about the matter.
Caring for my body, as a woman, means caring for all parts of my body, even those parts that some lawmakers find "icky."
As a conservative woman, who believes in woman's rights, NOW is only interested in the rights of woman, who support the NOW philosophies!
NOW is a JOKE! For claiming to support woman...you truly neglet an entire population, who doesn't support your liberal views!
Get a clue!
Health Care is NOT a right...especially when it involves abortions! Why should taxpayers be responsible for people who make poor choices?
Oh wait...you all are liberal and think we all are entitled to everything! Next you'll have the government paying for the gas in your car!
NOW...you DO NOT support me as a woman! And there are many out there, like me, who do not support you all!
As Nelson is a Democrat, and he's on the Senate Finance Committee, this was really disappointing. I would never vote for him now.
I'm sorry that "conservativewoman" is disappointed by NOW's stance on reproductive rights. Supporting a woman's right to self-determination is not a joke. Abortion is a medical procedure that may be deemed necessary by a woman and/or her doctor. As a medical procedure, it must be made available and affordable, as any other procedure would be.
You don't have to like every medical procedure that's out there. I oppose circumcision, for example, but doctors do it and insurers pay for it.
NOW supports your rights, even if you don't support NOW. We're never going away.
The laws that NOW advocates for would, will and do benefit all women. Even the most conservative women alive will benefit from the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, for instance. NOW does not ask Congress to insert clauses into bills that will prevent non-liberal women from enjoying the extra bit of equality those bills might produce. And disagree as you may, we believe that single-payer health insurance and full coverage of reproductive services are to the benefit of all women. We believe that enacting true reform will make EVERY woman's life healthier, safer and more productive. And if it turns out that we were right, even the most right-wing woman will reap the rewards.
You might not want to join NOW because you despise all that we do, but don't say we don't represent or care about all women. Every one of our policies and positions is formed with the best interests of all women in mind.
Oh, and I (and so many others) will never support a single[payer health care system. Please explain to me how the government will pay for this?
I WILL NEVER support a system that allows my tax dollars to pay for an abortion!
You will never sway me in supporting NOW! I read your material and view points and am continually saddened by how off you all are!
I will raise my daughter with great values, values that will teach her to respect her body and know that the government needs NO part in her health care choices!
If you haven't noticed...Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security are BANKRUPT!
Some people are adamantly against it, and though I'm in different on the issue, I do respect other peoples opinions. With that said, its unfair for an individual who's against abortion to fund the practice with their tax dollars. For many, its a religious issue. Requiring all citizens to contribute tax dollars towards abortion could be a violation of religious freedom.
As for madamab's comment:
The one area where men do not need reproductive health care coverage involves circumcision. The health care industry funds circumcision even though the boy has no say in the matter.
Also, there is no male reproductive issue that comes close to the complexity of abortion.
Now, I realize many people question funding erectile dysfunction and often compare that to abortion, but ED is a medical condition where men, for the most part, have no control over. In fact, ED is sometimes a sign of a more serious condition including high blood pressure and penal cancer.
Abortion is a choice, and is not a necessary procedure unless its involves rape or risking the woman's health -- in which case, those situations should be funded. Either way, those two provisions make up a very small percentage of actual abortion patients.
In some ways, I agree with conservative woman. Sometimes I think feminists think they know better than the individual female. I have no doubt that NOW's intentions are sincere but I also feel you write off difference of opinion as a result of patriarchy. If a woman doesn't agree, she either doesn't know any better or she's a victim of the 'oppressive' patriarchy. You fight male oppression yet your replacing it with a matriarchy that has a very rigid ideology on the way a woman should think and act. I almost see NOW as the mother bee and women as worker bees. I wonder, are you fighting for women's rights or simply the wants and needs of feminism? There's a big difference between the two. In fairness, I would be naive to think NOW hasn't done positive things for women, but modern feminism often fights battles that have been already won.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/08/oklahoma-abortion-online/
Remember, you would not have the right to vote, nor voice your opinion if it weren't for NOW and Women's Organizations like it or progressive legislators that voted Yea. This is exactly why women are where they are in this country. They tear each other apart. NOW might not have every aspect of their agenda that you agree with, but what does? They do good for women and their causes. It's not a liberal viewpoint, it's a progressive viewpoint. What is it with conservatives? Why does it always have to be black and white? Why can't you support women's rights for equality.......all equality and teach abortion stances in the home? (where it belongs) When we raise self-respecting women, then and only then will they be able to say NO to sex when they are too young to handle the consequences. And when we raise our boys to be respectful of women and that NO means NO, we won't have a group of men gang raping a woman on the job and our "conservative legislators" voting her rights to be heard and the right of America to see these men brought to justice squelched. BTW, Jesus was a radical and a progressive. Why don't religious conservatives ever point that out?
"The only reason why we're alive is because someone decided to let us live"
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