Republicans on Senate Committee Push to Exclude Abortion Services from Health Care Reform

Statement of Reverend Dr. Carlton W. Veazey, President and CEO, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

July 2, 2009

Contact: Marjorie Signer, Dir. Of Communications, msigner@rcrc.org, 202-341-5559 (cell)

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are pushing for language in health care reform legislation that would eliminate coverage for abortion services. If this happens, many women could lose coverage for abortion services that their private insurance currently includes. Plus, millions of uninsured women will still lack a basic health care service despite having been promised a better quality of life.

If these senators are allowed to deny coverage of abortion services, the burden will inevitably fall on low-income women and widen the huge gap in health status and access to health care services that reforms are meant to remedy. Compared to their higher-income counterparts, low-income women are four times as likely to have an unintended pregnancy and five times as likely to have an unintended birth.

As people of faith, we believe that health care reform should expand coverage to provide for the basic services that every human being deserves; it should not deny essential services to half of the population and aggravate the troubling disparities in health care affecting minorities and low-income individuals. For example, compared to her higher-income counterpart, a low-income woman is four times as likely to have an unintended pregnancy and five times as likely to have an unintended birth.

Let there be no mistake, basic health care includes abortion services. According to the Guttmacher Institute, one in three American women will have an abortion by age 45. Reproductive health care, including abortion services, is an essential component of women's health. Women must get a fair shake in the final health care reform bill.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is the national interfaith coalition of religious and religiously affiliated organizations from 15 mainstream denominations and traditions.