“In 2001, the average abortion at 10 weeks of gestation cost $372, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion non-profit group. In other words, anyone with an iPod could reasonably afford an abortion at 10 weeks.”
— Nicolas R. P. Lewine
Today’s Crimson editorial about the Stupak Amendment is chock full of ignorance about the accessibility of reproductive care. To illustrate, I have an iPod and in September, before I cashed my financial aid check, I would not have been able to afford to pay for an abortion out-of-pocket. Kennedy does not currently have enough money in her bank account to have an abortion. Luckily, we both have friends (and in my case, a boyfriend) who’d be willing lend us money or outright pay for the procedure if need be. But the women who will qualify for the public option are not going to have access to the same financial resources that we do. The women who would benefit most from healthcare reform are precisely those who can’t come up with a random 400 dollars out of the blue. To be blunt, the type of people Lewine refers to, “anyone with an iPod”, would probably not qualify for the public option anyway. Those people aren’t the ones Stupak will be harming. It’ll be hurting poor women, which makes this amendment a form of class and gender discrimination.
Further, consider that the healthcare bill covers all varieties of medical procedures. Stupak doesn’t ban abortion outright but it singles out the procedure, which is costly to women without insurance. Lewine asks if women have a “right to obtain [abortion] regardless of whether they can pay for it”. First, women continue to bear the brunt of reproductive health costs in the first place, so why should abortion be made the one exception to comprehensive health coverage? Second, not only do all people deserve to have basic needs taken care of, but besides that, taxpayer money goes to fund abstinence-only education and Viagra. If smokers get their cancer treatment covered and men get their erectile dysfunction medication covered, then yes, women do deserve the same consideration for their reproductive health.
Today’s Crimson editorial about the Stupak Amendment is chock full of ignorance about the accessibility of reproductive care. To illustrate, I have an iPod and in September, before I cashed my financial aid check, I would not have been able to afford to pay for an abortion out-of-pocket. Kennedy does not currently have enough money in her bank account to have an abortion. Luckily, we both have friends (and in my case, a boyfriend) who’d be willing lend us money or outright pay for the procedure if need be. But the women who will qualify for the public option are not going to have access to the same financial resources that we do. The women who would benefit most from healthcare reform are precisely those who can’t come up with a random 400 dollars out of the blue. To be blunt, the type of people Lewine refers to, “anyone with an iPod”, would probably not qualify for the public option anyway. Those people aren’t the ones Stupak will be harming. It’ll be hurting poor women, which makes this amendment a form of class and gender discrimination.
Further, consider that the healthcare bill covers all varieties of medical procedures. Stupak doesn’t ban abortion outright but it singles out the procedure, which is costly to women without insurance. Lewine asks if women have a “right to obtain [abortion] regardless of whether they can pay for it”. First, women continue to bear the brunt of reproductive health costs in the first place, so why should abortion be made the one exception to comprehensive health coverage? Second, not only do all people deserve to have basic needs taken care of, but besides that, taxpayer money goes to fund abstinence-only education and Viagra. If smokers get their cancer treatment covered and men get their erectile dysfunction medication covered, then yes, women do deserve the same consideration for their reproductive health.
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lovecity reblogged this from lenachen and added:
harming; it’ll
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