Poor Women in the United States Don’t Have Abortion Rights
For decades, the ban on using Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions has kept many poor women from being able to end their pregnancies. Finally, some pro-choice lawmakers are trying to change that—or at least show how unjust the status quo is.
MAYA DUSENBERY
Earlier this month, a group of Democratic Representatives, led by Barbara Lee of California, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, and Diana DeGette of Colorado, introduced legislation that would end restrictions on using federal funding to pay for abortions. It’s the first attempt in two decades to overturn the Hyde Amendment, which for nearly 40 years has prevented Medicaid from covering the cost of abortion with few exceptions.
Similar bans affect millions of Americans who rely on other federal programs for their health insurance, including federal employees, military personnel and their families, Peace Corp volunteers, Native Americans who use Indian Health Services, federal prisoners, and youth enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program. The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act would restore abortion coverage to all of them, as well as invalidate state laws restricting coverage of the procedure in private insurance plans.
The best estimate, according to a 2009 review of the research by the Guttmacher Institute, is that 18 to 37 percent of women on Medicaid who would otherwise get an abortion instead give birth due to the lack of funding.
Though there’s pretty much zero chance of the bill clearing the Republican-controlled Congress, the fact that it was introduced at all represents progress. While the Hyde Amendment was fiercely debated when it was first passed, eventually it came to be framed in Congress as a reasonable compromise—one that, to the ire of many pro-choice advocates, was re-affirmed by President Obama during passage of the Affordable Care Act. As Irin Carmon notes, “To opponents of abortion, the phrase ‘taxpayer funding for abortion’ is practically magic, conjuring both fears about the use of other people’s money and discomfort with abortion.” Meanwhile, most reproductive rights groups, focused on trying to stanch the tidal wave of new anti-choice laws, didn’t think it was worth going on the offensive about Hyde until recently.
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http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/poor-women-dont-have-abortion-rights
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