Not Under The Bus has declared today a day of action to fight for a woman’s right to an abortion. They have an entire page of things that YOU can do from signing petitions (too many to list here) to writing to your Congressional representative to writing an OpEd for your local paper.
While women’s groups throughout the U.S. are focusing on the abortion issue, it is important to remember that this is not the only aspect of women’s health that is in jeopardy. The National Partnership for Women and Families has prepared an excellent brief about the proposed wellness provisions that could effectively become a backdoor for rate discrimination against lower income women who are not able to participate in these programs because:
A disproportionate number of women head low-income families and are unable to pursue daily exercise programs when faced with significant caregiver responsibilities at home;
A disproportionate number of women are in low-income families and are unable to access safe areas for physical activity or affordable healthy food choices; and
Many of the most vulnerable women and children who would benefit greatly from assistance in living healthier lives are ill-prepared to sustain the added financial burden that arises from paying significantly more for health insurance under the current “20 percent” standard.
They conclude:
There is no doubt that women want their families and themselves to be healthy. Every day, women are leading the charge for improving health across the country. But what women also need is support to achieve healthy lifestyles — not a policy that allows their employer to discriminate against them based on their health status (or a family member’s health status). This kind of policy undermines the very goals of health reform. Instead, employers should be encouraged to provide wellness incentives that treat women equitably and respect the challenges they face in meeting the dual demands of work and family.
Gwendolyn Mink and Dorothy Roberts also point to concerns regarding nurse home visitation programs aimed at low-income pregnant women and mothers of young children, saying they are,
concerned that the provision is not aimed at providing health care. Instead, it pledges to advance goals that endanger the reproductive and family freedoms of low income women, conjures stereotypes of low income women of color, and implies that using available public services is a bad thing. The Senate bill contains a similar provision.
They go on to say that,
It is imperative that a government-sponsored home visitation program for low-income women amply and explicitly protects program clients. Express stipulations to assure that participation is voluntary must be part of the statutory package, along with a guarantee that a decision to participate, or not to, cannot be made a condition of receiving other government assistance. The aim of nurse home visitation programs should be to provide medical and wellness services; neither the statutory language nor administrative regulations should permit or encourage monitoring the family and reproductive decisions of individuals, and neither should denigrate low-income mothers for using public assistance. We should do everything possible to ensure that these programs support the women they are intended to serve rather than using women to advance the interests of government.
Whatever action you decide to take today, be sure make clear that women’s health care must include not only access to affordable, safe and legal abortion, but also to full reproductive health care and affordable, non-discriminatory overall health care.
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Many thanks to Adele Stan for drawing our attention to the wellness program issue.
