Letter: Congress should remove anti-abortion amendment

January 22, 2010, St. Petersburg Times

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the constitutional right to privacy protects the right of women to make private decisions about the most intimate of matters — including the decision to terminate pregnancies that threaten their health and well-being. Abortion has existed as long as childbirth. There will always be a need for some women to terminate their pregnancies. Today, one in every three women will have an abortion at some time in her life. Although so many of us are working hard to reduce the number of terminations, abortion is not going away.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said not long ago, abortion rights “center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.”

Over the years, a minority of Americans has consistently opposed the right to abortion and has worked tirelessly to overturn Roe. One of their techniques in the last 10 years has been to marginalize abortion from other medical services, and these efforts have been largely successful.

Now, anti-choice activists have set their sights on the health care reform bill before Congress with the goal of using reform to eliminate private health insurance coverage for abortion. The most extreme proposal before Congress is the Stupak amendment, which would prevent millions of women from using their own money to buy private health insurance that covers abortion. Restricting access to private health insurance coverage for abortion in effect denies women the choices that Roe secured. Politicians and the anti-choice crusaders are playing a dangerous game — using health care reform to deny women access to coverage and care.

Women will not stand by silently as anti-choice forces work to undermine their rights and health care coverage. On this anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it is imperative that Congress remove the Stupak abortion ban from the final health care reform bill.

Barbara A. Zdravecky, President, CEO, Planned Parenthood of Southwest,Central Florida Sarasota