Repro Health Hub

With the 35^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade just a week behind us, abortion opponents in West Virginia are already gearing up for the 2008 legislative season. Among their top priorities: limiting Medicaid funding for abortions.  

If passed, this bill (HB 3077) would limit Medicaid funding for abortions, allowing such funding only in those exceptions that the federal government has permitted through the Hyde Amendment (in cases of incest, rape, or when the mother’s life is endangered). In the 30 years since the passage of the Hyde Amendment, only 17 states have elected to provide additional financial assistance to low-income women through Medicaid, with West Virginia among this small and possibly shrinking minority.  

WV reproductive rights activists, however, are not letting this regressive proposal go unchallenged. WV FREE, a local non-profit supporting reproductive rights, has called on West Virginians to join together as a united voice for reproductive rights on their upcoming Lobby Day (February 28). To further this end, WV FREE has issued a set of talking points to address HB 3077. Of notable significance within these talking points is the reference to Women’s Health Center v. Panepinto, a 1993 case that found limiting abortion funds for poor and low-income women to be unconstitutional. And contrary to what abortion foes might argue, this type of funding has not caused the abortion rate to increase in the state. In fact, consistent with the national trend, the abortion rate has been on the decline in West Virginia since 1990.  

This recent decline, coupled with the previous ruling of unconstitutionality, should serve as sufficient proof that this type of legislation is unnecessary and discriminatory.  

- Michelle Martelle

Members of the Hyde 30 Years is Enough Campaign delivered thousands of petition signatures to Congress today asking for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment!

 The Hyde Amendment, as many of you know, is an egregious policy that prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from being used to pay for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life of the woman. This horrific policy has left many women without access to needed care. 

The Hyde 30 Years is Enough Coalition, spearheaded by the National Network of Abortion Funds, is working to change this policy. As part of a multi-pronged approach that demonstrates its grassroots support across the country, the campaign gathered over 12,500 petition signatures calling on Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment. Activists from the coalition brought the petitions to Congress today and delivered their important message that indeed, 30 years is enough! 

For more information about the coalition and how to get involved, check out their website.     

- Myra Batchelder 

It looks like Iowa has been in dire need of reproductive health services, until now.  Here’s a few not-so-fun facts about Iowa’s report card on repro health:

• Iowa ranks 48th in the nation in making family planning services available
• It ranks 39th in its public funding for family planning
• More than half of Iowa’s counties do not have family planning services.
• Half of all pregnancies in Iowa in 2006 were unintended.

In short, Iowa is not on the top list of family planning provider states. But something is finally being done about it, thanks to former first lady Christie Vilsack, whose determination has resulted in the recent launch of the Iowa Initiative to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies.

The organization’s goal is to broaden family planning services to the people who need them, and disseminate information to Iowans about contraception and family planning through public education outreach.

“As a woman and a mother, I believe we have a responsbility to give all women in our state the knowledge  and means to prevent unintended pregnancies,” says Vilsack. “Access in family planning results in better lives for women, children and families and the greater Iowa community.”

Amen. The best of luck to Vilsack and the Iowa Initiative! Click here for more info on this fantastic (and much-needed) project.  

The MergerWatch organization of New York, in partnership with the Avery Institute for Social Change and the National Women’s Health Network, is in the midst of bringing a vital issue to the forefront of the healthcare reform movement- women’s rights.  The name of this ongoing project is Raising Women’s Voices for the Healthcare We Need.   

Unlike other healthcare efforts that claim they have the rights of the uninsured at the base of their campaign, Raising Women’s Voices has actually asked real women what struggles they’ve had with their medical insurance and how they would attempt to rectify the healthcare system.  The project places special priority on engaging women from communities that are frequently marginalized in health policy discussions such as low-income families, communities of color, immigrants, young women, women with disabilities and those who are lesbians, bisexual or transgender.   

Through these discussions, Raising Women’s Voices hopes to develop a vision for a healthcare system that would meet the identified needs of these women and their families, real needs from real people. The project aims to mobilize women to advocate for their rights in their own communities, so that their voices are heard before the rest of the healthcare reform movement drowns them out.   

Click here to check out information on their upcoming audio conference next week, “Where Should Women’s Health Advocates Put Our Energy?”

While Myra wrote a post last week about the horrid Hyde Amendment and how it prohibits women on Medicaid from getting funding for abortion care, the Kaiser Foundation coincidentally released an issue brief today titled, “Medicaid’s Role for Women.”

The public health care program isn’t typically identified as a women’s program, yet 69% of its adult beneficiaries are women. Medicaid also finances 41% of all births in the United States and 61% of publicly funded family planning services.

So in short, Medicaid is doing tons for women’s health care in this country. And for that, they get kudos from us.

Check out a PDF version of the brief here.

Abortion is still legal in the U.S., but every year thousands of women are denied this right because they don’t have the money to pay for abortion care.  

Women face this difficult situation because in 1976 Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which excludes abortion from government-funded health care programs. Every year since, this harmful amendment has been reauthorized under appropriations bills for the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Women enrolled in Medicaid and similar programs receive coverage for all medically necessary health care services, including prenatal care, labor, and delivery. However, as a result of the Hyde Amendment, a woman enrolled in Medicaid is denied coverage for an abortion, unless she is the victim of rape, incest, or her life is in danger.  

As a result, many low-income women are forced to use money they need for food, rent, and other necessities, to cover the cost of an abortion. Many women cannot raise enough money and must continue the pregnancy and stay trapped in poverty. 

How much “choice” do these women actually have if they aren’t able to access abortion? We urge you to take action to repeal the Hyde Amendment! Below are several steps to take action in your state. 

1.) We urge you to join the Hyde – 30 Years is Enough! Campaign, led by the National Network of Abortion Funds, demanding an end to this injustice!  Sign the petition calling on Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment and restore coverage of abortion for low-income women.  The goal of the Campaign is to collect 20,000 signatures to deliver to Congress by January 22, 2008. With your help we can meet this goal!  

2.) Email, write or call your Congressional members directly asking them to repeal the dangerous Hyde amendment! Find your members online at http://www.congress.org.  

3.) States have the ability to use state-only dollars to cover additional abortion services. Currently, only seventeen states provide this coverage (Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia). If your state is not listed, contact your state legislators and ask them to provide this much needed coverage! 

For more information about low-income women and access to reproductive health care, check out the National Institute’s Low-Income Access Program.

- Myra Batchelder

With EC costing forty bucks a pop, it’s nearly impossible for many women to afford emergency contraception. Even women that have health care through Medicaid are not able to access EC over-the-counter in most states because Medicaid still requires them to have a prescription. So what to do? Check out LIAP’s new memo for advocates, entitled Expanding Medicaid Coverage for EC on the State Level.