Is this the message the White House is giving Ben Nelson today? Now that he wants to gut the bill beyond anything that could reasonably be called reform, one can only hope.
But don't forget he's still holding this effort hostage over abortion [sub. req.]
Earlier Thursday, Nelson announced that he was dissatisfied with compromise abortion language negotiated by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and that he remained a “no” vote. An amendment sponsored by Nelson to address the issue failed in a floor vote last week, and Casey, who also opposes abortion, developed the compromise with the goal of attracting Nelson’s vote without alienating abortion-rights Democrats.
What does Nelson want? Who knows, but here's what he could achieve: the nighmare scenario faced by military women extended to millions and millions of women "benefitting" from this reform.
From a remove of two years, Amy now sees the sex that resulted in her pregnancy as rape: something that may have qualified her for an on-base (though self-funded) abortion. However, at the time, because the rape wasn’t brutally violent, and because she had seen fellow servicewomen be ostracized for “crying rape” in the past, she imagined nothing but trouble would come of making a complaint.
Instead, using herbal abortifacient supplements ordered online, Amy self-aborted. Unable to find a coat hanger she used her sanitized rifle cleaning rod and a laundry pin to manually dislodge the fetus while lying on a towel on the bathroom floor. It was a procedure she attempted twice, each time hemorrhaging profusely. Amy lost so much blood on the first attempt that her skin blanched and her ears rang. She continued working for five weeks, despite increasing sickness, until she realized she was still pregnant.
The morning after her second attempt, she awoke in great pain, and finally told a female supervisor, who told Amy to take an emergency leave to fly back to the United States where a private abortion clinic could finish the procedure. However, Amy was afraid that she would miscarry on the 15-hour plane ride and have no medical escort to help her. She went to the military hospital instead and told the doctor everything. Shortly thereafter, her company first sergeant and other officers were notified of Amy’s condition. The first sergeant came to her hospital room to announce that Amy would be punished under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which addresses violations of general regulations, for having had sex in a war zone.
Or how about this horrific situation, suffered by a government employee:
D.J. Feldman was 11 weeks pregnant last year when she learned that her child had anencephaly, a fetal defect that left the baby with almost no brain. It is always fatal.
Feldman, a 41-year-old federal lawyer, and her husband had been trying for two years to have a baby. Sadly, her doctor "made it very clear I wasn't to continue this pregnancy," she said.
An abortion was medically necessary. She had little choice.
But after the jolt of the diagnosis and the emotional pain of the procedure, Feldman was in for another shock -- sticker shock. She thought her health insurance policy through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) would cover the $9,000 cost of the abortion. It didn't.
For Feldman, unlike many women who have abortion insurance coverage through private-sector employers, abortion coverage provided through her employer -- the U.S. government -- is illegal. The law says that "no funds . . . shall be available to pay for an abortion" under FEHBP. Exceptions are made for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest, or that endanger the mother's life. . . .
Feldman's health was in jeopardy. The minority of babies with anencephaly that are carried to term -- dying shortly after birth -- cause complications such as "dysfunctional labor and postpartum hemorrhage, which can increase the risk for the mother," Feldman's doctor wrote in a letter to her insurance company.
The doctor warned that the complications for a woman of Feldman's maternal age from giving birth to a child with anencephaly "are especially serious . . . and could be life threatening."
Despite the doctor's plea, the Office of Personnel Management refused to make Blue Cross/Blue Shield pay.
This is all happening under the "reasonable" compromise that seems now to be carved in stone, the Hyde Amendment. It's what millions of low-income women have faced for years, along with those in military and government service. And it will be extend to millions and millions of middle class women, if Nelson gets his way.
At what point does a Democratic President, Majority Leader, or rank and file Senator, reach a point of saying "no"?