Republicans may have cowered in fear of Jon Stewart again, abandoning their quest to tell women that they weren't really raped unless they have bruises to show for it, but H.R. 3 is still the boldest move since the Hyde amendment to push back women's rights. To borrow from last night's Daily Show, this isn't "warish" on women, it's war on women.
Even as amended, the bill seeks to use financial restrictions to greatly curtail access to abortion throughout the nation. In addition to banning direct funding, it would disallow any insurance plan which includes abortion coverage from receiving any kind of favorable tax treatment - which would instantly guarantee that no employer-sponsored insurance would offer abortion coverage. What's more, premiums for an individual plan would not be deductible on your tax return. Nor would payment for the actual procedure, which under HR3 you'd almost certainly have to pay for in full yourself - and if you had an FSA or HSA, you couldn't use that either (without paying a penalty).
Fortunately at least some House Democrats are taking the removal of the word "forcible" as a sign of momentum to press on against the whole bill, not a token victory to excuse ending the fight (as was the fear from past capitulations).
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