Source: Examiner.com
By AMY WILLIAMS

Pro-choice lawmakers and organization leaders are firing back after the House passed its landmark health care reform legislation late Saturday night.  The bill included what's known as the Stupak-Pitts amendment, language offered by Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) that prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion services in any health exchange be it public or private.

Currently, most private insurers cover abortion related services but that practice will cease if Stupak's amendment remains in the finalized version of the legislation.  Try as they might, the Congressional Pro-choice Caucus couldn't stop the anti-abortion language from being included in the House bill.  The co-chairs of the Caucus, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Congresswoman Diane DeGette of Colorado issued a joint statement voicing their outrage over the inclusion of the amendment.  "Placing onerous new restrictions on a woman's right to choose sets a terrible precedent and marks a significant step backwards," said the legislators; and yet, both women voted for the final bill.

The President of NARAL Pro-choice America, Nancy Keenan, delivered a more blistering attack saying, "It is unconscionable that anti-choice lawmakers would use health reform to attack women's health and privacy..."  Keenan continued, "Reps. Stupak and Pitts took their obsession with attacking a woman's right to choose to a whole new level.  We will hold those lawmakers who sided with the extreme Stupak-Pitts amendment accountable for abandoning women and capitulating to the most extreme fringe of the anti-choice movement."

Planned Parenthood Federation of America also released a statement condemning the anti-abortion language.  PPFA President, Cecile Richards said the amendment "violates President Obama's promise to the American people that no one would be forced to lose his or her present coverage under health reform." Richards added that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and its supporters "simply used health care reform to advance their extreme, ideological agenda at the expense of tens of millions of women."