I receive action alerts from Planned Parenthood and other feminist organizations. I am often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that hits my inbox. This has been especially true in the wake of the latest health care reform “debate.” Conservatives have been spreading misinformation about how how health care reform is a “pro-abortion” agenda, knowing that many of their most vocal supporters are vehemently anti-abortion.
I am pro-choice – not pro-abortion. I cry whenever I think about babies who don’t get to be born. Willful ignorance on my part left me uncertain about whether or not I actually had a miscarriage before I got pregnant with TJ. (I didn’t want to know. But in my heart? I do know. I also believe that it was TJ trying to be born, and it wasn’t his time yet. He came back to me in his own time.) I can’t listen to the song “Brick” by Ben Folds Five without sobbing. (Sung from the point of view of the guy whose girlfriend got an abortion.) I can’t wait for the day that no more abortions are performed. But we’ve got a long way to go before we are culturally, medically, and economically advanced enough to make that a reality.
But I’ve prefaced this long enough. Here is a list of myths about health care reform provided to me by the latest email alert I received from Planned Parenthood. (Emphasis mine.)
MYTH: Health care reform would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.
REALITY: Currently, the majority of plans already cover basic reproductive health care, including abortion care. In fact, more than 86 percent of employer-based insurance plans cover abortion care. That’s why anti-choice groups are working so hard to strip reproductive health from health care reform — in order to strip women of coverage they currently have.
MYTH: Taxpayer money would be used to pay for abortions in the public plan.
REALITY: Opponents of reproductive health care are trying to confuse people into thinking that the public plan is a government-funded health plan like Medicaid or Medicare — it is not. The public health insurance plan would operate like any private insurance plan would. It would be funded and paid for by private individual premiums, in the same way a private insurance plan is. Therefore, there is no reason to treat any coverage issue, including abortion coverage, differently in the public health insurance plan than in private plans.
MYTH: Health care reform will “mandate” abortion coverage.
REALITY: Nothing in any of the current health care reform bills mandates abortion coverage — or any other type of health care service. Opponents of women’s health and health care reform are trying to hijack health care reform to push for unprecedented prohibitions on abortion coverage in the private marketplace.
Don’t get taken in by the myths. Ignore the propaganda and read what the bill actually says. Pro-choice or pro-life, don’t we all just want to make sure all children and families have access to adequate health care?