Democratic House leaders saved the health-care reform bill by letting anti-abortion members of their party tack on an amendment from Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, barring insurance plans purchased with federal subsidies from covering abortions. Pro-choice Democrats voted for the bill, but Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado called the measure the "greatest restriction of a woman’s right to choose to pass in our careers." Did Democrats sacrifice the abortion rights movement to pass health-care reform? (Watch Rep. Diana DeGette discuss abortion rights on MSNBC)
Democrats will pay for abandoning women: The Democratic leadership has just thrown half the population under the bus, says Ann Friedman in Feministing, by saying that the women's rights are "expendable." It should be a "no-brainer" for a party that depends on women voters to win elections to see that "fundamental rights for women are not peripheral. They are core." The only way to save health reform -- and women's rights -- is to overturn the ban on spending government money on abortions.
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