Center Calls on Senate to Block Repeal of Healthcare Law
(PRESS RELEASE) Today, the Center for
Reproductive Rights called on the Senate to block repeal of the Affordable Care
Act. This evening,
the House of Representatives approved legislation that would rescind the new
health law. The law includes several measures that are important to women,
including the provision of significant consumer protections, affordability, and
increased coverage for reproductive health services. Nancy Northup, president of
the Center for Reproductive Rights, issued this statement in response:
“It is hugely troubling that the
House of Representatives would vote to repeal the new healthcare law and
aggressively move to rollback historic progress in women’s access to health
services. Millions of women and their families stand to benefit from the law
including the elimination of abuses regularly perpetrated by insurance
companies to expanded access to women’s health services.
“To be sure, healthcare reform is
far from perfect. The abortion restrictions within the legislation impose a convoluted payment system for abortion coverage that needlessly
burdens insurers and discourages them from offering coverage at all.. But repeal of the health legislation will reverse
critical advances in women’s access to affordable reproductive health services
and certainly, encourage even more efforts by anti-choice lawmakers to hack
away at abortion coverage. Among other provisions, the new law eliminates the discriminatory
practice of charging women higher premiums than men, provides families with
options foraffordable insurance coverage, ends denial of coverage for women who
have had cesarean sections, and expands coverage for women’s health by holding
out a promise of increased access to contraception
without co-pays.
“Tomorrow, the House will vote on
a healthcare resolution which specifically calls for a proposal that prohibits
federal funding for abortion. Lawmakers are poised to introduce another extreme measure that
seeks to make abortion coverage unavailable in private health insurance plans.
“We expect that none of these
actions will be the last word from the House.
But the Center stands ready and girded to protect the health and rights
of women across the country.”
