Reproductive Rights

Sara Rosenbaum, health policy expert at George Washington University, today released her take on the Ben Nelson abortion restrictions found in the Senate’s health care reform bill. Here’s a hint: They won’t make it easy, in her estimation, for women to access comprehensive health care services — particular if women are forced to write two [...]

In exchange for their support to overcome a GOP filibuster, moderate Democrats extract big concessions on the public option and abortion coverage for women.

The vote was 54 to 45 to set the bill aside, with seven Democrats (all men) voting to keep the bill alive, and two Republicans (both women) voting to table the measure.
Sponsored by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the bill would have banned subsidized insurance plans offered on proposed insurance marketplaces from [...]

A month ago, House leaders were forced into a corner by conservative Democrats insisting that health reform legislation include language prohibiting abortion coverage on the exchange. This week, the scenario is threatening to play out again in the upper chamber, where Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) will introduce an amendment today mirroring the House provision.
The amendment [...]

“We’re going to re-define the pro-life debate in the 2010 election,” said Terry.

Following in the footsteps of House health care leaders, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plans to hold a hearing on contentious new recommendations for screening breast cancer, Harkin’s office said this afternoon.
The senator has yet to announce a date, but with the health reform debate likely [...]

A bipartisan group of 22 senators representing are calling on the leaders of the chamber’s health committee to examine the new breast cancer screening guidelines that have ignited a recent firestorm on and off Capitol Hill.
“These recommendations, which have been widely criticized by patients and doctors alike, could prove devastating for women at risk of [...]

In the opening pages of “Going Rogue,” Sarah Palin tells an anecdote about the Alaska State Fair that took me aback. Here’s the story:
Ahead, on my right, I saw the Alaska Right to Life (RTL) booth, where a poster caught my eye, taking my breath away. It featured the sweetest baby girl swathed in pink, [...]

The abortion debate in the Senate is looking more and more like that in the House every day.
Last week, it was liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) predicting that anti-abortion lawmakers in the upper chamber wouldn’t be able to rally the 60 votes needed to pass an amendment to health reform legislation restricting abortion. This week, [...]

Rep. Bart Stupak, the adamantly anti-abortion Michigan Democrat, has stirred up a firestorm with his amendment prohibiting abortion coverage under insurance plans targeting low- and middle-income women on the exchange. And he isn’t backing down.
In an interview with Detroit News, the 57-year-old Catholic warned that “the other side is playing with fire,” if they try [...]