The fate of women’s health care falls in the hands of two vastly different presidential candidates–one of whom does not support progressive rights for women.
Having to fight the belief that women’s health care is strictly a women’s issue is one of the most frustrating ordeals of being a young woman of this generation. Especially since some believe it is a matter that can be cast aside and separated from the more “important” political agenda at hand.
Much of the discussion of women’s rights in the political sphere is disconcerting to me. During a hearing with the House Oversight Committee on contraception, women were excluded from the debate on the basis of trying to be “fair” and “balanced,” and the claim that this is an issue of religion rather than women’s rights. Seriously, what the hell? Did I miss something here? Why is the deciding body primarily made up of ancient, white men? Didn’t it become clear a hundred years ago when women gained the right to vote that they should have the right to choose and to have a say over their own bodies? I sincerely hope there are some decent Americans out there who get what’s wrong with this picture. How is this still a disputed issue? It is problematic that religion so often becomes muddled in issues of women’s health even though not all Americans share the same religious beliefs.
Some politicians get it. Unlike Romney, President Obama firmly believes that women’s health care is a vital economic issue that affects every family in America.
Obama is steering women’s health care legislation in the right direction. His Affordable Health Care Act prohibits charging women more than men for an identical health care plan, mandates maternity coverage and a basic preventative care package (which includes pap smears, mammograms, birth control, STD testing, etc.). What is Mitt Romney’s response? He plans on eliminating Obamacare “on day one.”
It is safe to say that Mitt Romney’s track record on women’s health sucks.
Romney promises to reverse Roe v. Wade, essentially instantaneously overturning forty years of progress. He wants to outlaw all abortions in this country “period”; a decision grounded in his radically conservative religious beliefs (Read: this is the same man whose campaign slogans are shrouded with the vague promise of “religious freedom”). Hey Mitt, I think you missed the memo about separating church and state.
Not only does Romney want to restrict abortion rights, he also wants to restrict our access to birth control. He would no longer require health insurance plans to include contraception without co-pay. That’s perfect--taking away a woman’s tools to sexually protect herself is really going to help decrease the country’s birth and STD rates. In contrast, the continuation of Obama’s Affordable Care Act would require insurance companies to cover 100% of birth control costs, as well as eliminate discrimination based on “pre-existing conditions” such as breast cancer or pregnancy.
Mr. Romney seems to think that being a woman is a preexisting condition.
This would mean women losing access to health care programs they have depended on in the past. Apparently, government-funded organizations like Planned Parenthood are a “luxury” and too costly to be included in the deficit next year. Romney has been vague regarding his plans for women’s health policy. He has not yet offered any future solutions. The elimination of Planned Parenthood would mean that one of the nation’s biggest family planning programs would be defunded, leaving millions of women without birth control. The same man who has argued that women can go “wherever they’d like” for health care and stressed the idea of a “free society,” also famously stated (almost like a gut reaction), “Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that.”
If Mitt Romney is elected president, he would drastically alter the nation’s stance on women’s rights. In previous years, our leadership has not supported views as archaic as Romney’s. Women’s accessibility and freedom to choose their own health care should be separate entities from the individual religious or moral beliefs of a politician.
So my message to Mitt Romney: Women’s health care is crucial. Denying us control of our own bodies is an infringement of basic human rights–and we’re not okay with that.
The day has come. If you support President Obama’s defense of women’s health care, get out there and exercise your right to vote!