Health Care Reform Bill Passes in the House -- Blue Dogs, Republicans and Spineless Dems Throw Women Under the Bus

The Stupak Amendment to the Health Care Reform bill in the House of Representatives passed with 240 yeas, 194 nays and 1 present vote.

What does that mean?

It means that women have been singled out to be the only class of people to actually lose coverage under the HCR bill.

While Rep. Bart Stupak (D, He-Man-Women-Haters-Club) claimed that the his amendment would just ensure that no federal funds would pay for abortion, that is just a BIG FAT LIE. There is already the Hyde Amendment which says no Federal funds can be used to pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest, or life of the woman.

What the Stupak Amendment does is ensure that no insurance will cover abortions in a regular plan -- even if the woman pays for the insurance totally with her own personal funds. (Currently about 85% of private-insurance plans cover abortion services.) With the passed Stupak Amendment, an insurer who participates in the Public Option Exchange cannot cover abortions except in the case of rape, incest, or life of the woman.

And, how did we get to a place where women actually will lose current coverage?

You can thank the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Apparently our Congress needed their seal of approval before they could pass HCR legislation.

How fitting that an institution which has an all male leadership has the most important voice in deciding which legal medical procedures can be covered for women. It's so peachy fucking keen. It's also swell that so many of our representatives have decided that we are all Catholic now. Perhaps the bill can also be amended to include "Magdalene laundries": virtual slave labor camps set up by the Catholic Church in Ireland for women of "low character". I'm betting Rep. Michele Bachmann would go for it.

Hell, maybe even Pittsburgh's own Rep. Mike Doyle the "point man to help strike a last-minute compromise on abortion language in the House of Representatives' health care bill" would like the laundries established here too seeing as how he lives in the "C Street" House with Stupak which is run by the ultra secretive and ultra creepy religious group know as "The Family." You know, the group who thinks that its members are destined to rule and aren't bound by conventional moral codes that the rest of us are supposed to follow (which is how they justify to themselves covering up their members' adulterous sexual affairs).

But, it's all OK. If a woman wants insurance that will cover abortion, she can apparently buy supplemental insurance -- because it makes perfect sense to buy extra insurance ahead of time to cover a pregnancy that was unplanned to begin with. Kind of like how everyone should be forced to get supplemental insurance for cancer just in case they get it some day and want to be covered. (And, speaking of cancer, Texas Republican Pete Sessions compared being a woman to being a smoker as to why it's perfectly fine for women to pay more for insurance than men. Better quit that uterus now, girls!)

As I'm writing this the HCR reform bill just passed. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that we have a bill which forces women to buy insurance that prohibits coverage of a legal medical procedure at the behest of men who wear dresses (and not in a good way) and can't have sex with women or men -- well, not unless they're very, very young -- and whose leader is in the midst of conducting a witch hunt against his own nuns in the US.

And, while it's true that we really have Blue Dog Dems to thank for this travesty, House Rethuglicans have their own special ways of sticking it to the lil woman. This happened this morning and wasn't even about abortion, but the HCR bill in general:

As the Democratic Women’s Caucus took to the microphone on the House floor to offer their arguments for how the bill would benefit women, House Republicans — led by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) — repeatedly talked over, screamed, and shouted objections. “I object, I object, I object, I object, I object,” Price interjected as Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) tried to hold the floor.

What a great day for the women of this country (because it's always good to know exactly where you stand -- below men).

Woo-fucking-hoo
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