By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-892056.mp3
Albany, NY – President Barack Obama's health care reform package has women's rights organizations squirming... Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
National Organization for Women-NYS President Marcia Pappas says the new law is "health care reform on the backs of women and at the price of women's health." Pappas also objected to Obama's articulating a reinvigorated "conscience clause" through which many essential emergency services are denied. "For example, if a woman is raped, and she is brought to an emergency room, under the conscience clause she could be denied emergency contraception that she might so desperately need."
When the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in the U.S., Medicaid covered abortion services until 1977 when the Hyde amendment was passed: it prohibits appropriated funds to be expended on abortion except when the mother's life is endangered by her pregnancy.
Pappas has issues with the President's executive order affirming the Hyde Amendment, which is attached to the annual federal spending bill; its provisions change to reflect the numbers of pro-life and pro-choice members of Congress.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Congressmen on Saturday asking them to vote no on health care reform. They wanted more assurance reagrding the use of federal subsidies paying for insurance policies that cover abortion.
A spokesperson for the Conference declined to comment, saying only that a statement "may be issued later" -- Officials at the Catholic Health Association, which supported the health care reform package, did not return calls for comment.