Planned Parenthood & NOW SlamHouse Health Care Bill;Capuano Doubles Down
National pro-choice advocates today slammed the House-passed health care bill that increases restrictions on abortion. Locally, after Martha Coakley said she would not have traded off women’s rights in order to vote for the bill, Pagliuca and Khazei said they would have, and Capuano doubled down on the fact that he did.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards issued this statement:
… the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has no choice but to oppose HR 3962. The bill includes the Stupak/Pitts amendment that would leave women worse off after health care reform than they are today, violating President Obama’s promise to the American people that no one would be forced to lose her or his present coverage under health reform.
The National Organization for Women today rallied in Washington DC, protesting the health care bill. In a statement, the group said
We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips millions of women of their existing access to abortion.
Locally, Coakley said on WTKK that she would not have voted for the bill that included the abortion restrictions amendment, explaining
… a health care reform bill that takes steps back on women’s constitutional right to choose is a mistake… I do not believe that we have to take a step backward on women’s rights to get health care reform.
KennedySeat.com reports that both Pagliuca and Khazei responded that they would have voted for the bill even though it contained the abortion restrictions. He also reported that Capuano went beyond advocating for his vote in favor of the bill to attack Coakley for her view, saying:
The fact is Martha Coakley is once again out of step with our state’s progressive values.
Really? When did standing up for choice become out of step with progressive values? Capuano then used the ”everybody’s doing it” justification.
The entire Massachusetts Delegation voted for the Health Care Bill.
Can’t you just hear a parent’s voice saying, “Mikey, if your friends jumped off a cliff…”
4 comments
Hope the men in this race understand how dangerous this slippery slope is- Very upsetting that they could so cavalierly trade away women’s rights. Big mistake!
This is just one more reason why we need more women in the House and Senate. It makes no sense that a health care bill should be passed at the sacrifice of half the voters + their daughters. Am I missing something here? Do pro-life voters represent the majority in this country? Re: Martha Coakley. This once again is putting a woman in an impossible situation. I applaud her for taking a stand, and if we had more Senators like her, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
We may need to have a big pro-choice rally for Martha a la the one in DC several years ago. With a democratic president and congress I feel more threatened than I have in years- I think we may need to gather the forces for Martha, I knew they would find a way to attack her but never expected this would be the issue. So upsetting on so many levels.
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