Barbara Boxer takes on the Nelson-Hatch Amendment
Barbara Boxer is one kick-ass Senator. Yesterday, the Senate debated the new threat to women's health: the Nelson-Hatch Amendment, which is essentially Stupak round 2. Senator Boxer did not hold back, and said exactly what I, and other women, have been thinking.
Adam Sonfield, senior public policy associate of the Guttmacher Institute, wrote: "As with Stupak-Pitts, this amendment would restrict abortion coverage well beyond the status quo and could have profound implications even for coverage in the private market, paid for with private funds. It also, like the Stupak-Pitts amendment, takes what had been even-handed language respecting and protecting the conscience of providers on both sides of the abortion divide and turns it into biased language that allows for discrimination against health care providers willing to provide or refer for abortions."
Watch the video here:
BOXER: "There’s nothing in this amendment that says if a man some days wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to have to buy a rider to buy Viagra and this will be public information that could be accessed? No, I don’t support that. I support a man’s privacy, just as I support a woman’s privacy."
We may have defeated Stupak, but the frightening reality seems to be that women's health is never "saved." I know, just when you thought you could relax and enjoy the holiday season, it is time to pick up the phone and call your senators. Again. The good news is that gutsy Jewish women like Sen. Barbara Boxer are out there fighting, providing us the inspiration to keep going.
To learn more about Senator Barbara Boxer, visit her entry in Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia. For more on her speech against Nelson-Hatch, visit Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, and Jezebel.
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