Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Sphere: Related Content

How about this headline:

Senate rejects care for pregnant poor

How could they. Pregnant poor women not being given the care that any pregnant woman deserves. Ah, but the headline doesn't tell the story.

The Senate rejected a proposal to expand government health care for low-income pregnant women and force private health insurance companies to make contraceptives more widely available.

(bold mine) The Senate did not reject care for the pregnant poor, they did not expand it. Pregnant poor women have many options available to them that will never go away.

President Bush has said he would sign the legislation, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., an opponent, acknowledged the measure will become law — at least for awhile.
“This will end up in court,” she said. “That’s absolutely true.”
Murray and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered the proposals to provide greater access to contraceptives and pregnancy-related services, including a requirement for health plans to provide contraceptive coverage if they offered a prescription drug benefit.


Not including contraceptives in a prescription drug plan is not a great idea though, since, I believe, a majority of americans use contraceptives. Paleo-Republicans believe that the only good contraceptive is abstinence. This is a kiss for the conservative base but is not truly realistic. Any vote that has Murray on the losing end is not a bad thing though.

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