If Men Could Become Pregnant...

As coverage for the new health care reform law is being debated, women's health is once again at stake. 

When the health care bill was passed, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Mikulski demanded that being a woman could not be considered a pre-exisiting health condition ---- hopefully paving the way for birth control and other reproductive health procedures to be covered.

Despite this language, A panel of "experts" meets for the first time next week to determine if both public and private health plans should cover the entire cost of contraception. The Catholic church is fighting full coverage of contraception for women. The Church issued the following statement in September, stating that they opposed birth control being declared preventative care, which would allow birth control to be fully covered under the new reform. Letter from Catholic Church

The letter asserts that birth control is not preventative care, even though it is the best care I can think of to prevent unwanted pregnancy. (Aside from abstinence, and women sleeping with women instead of men, GASP!). 

A study by the Guttmacher Institute shows that many women who take contraception will lapse due to cost, and that the biggest barrier to obtaining birth control is lack of health care coverage. Guttmacher Institute Statement. Universally covering birth control allows women to have real control over their bodies and lives -- regardless of income. This is a fundamental human right needed to ensure that women can be full, productive citizens with choice in all aspects of their lives. 

Our newly elected Senate majority leader, Harry Reid has said that the new health insurance legislation needs "tweaking" and that not covering birth control is a good "tweak."

The irony in all of this is that health care routinely covers prescriptions that "treat" impotence. That will not change under the new health care reform act.  If ensuring penises stay errect is good health care, then ensuring uteruses stay unfertilized is also good health care sense. Gloria Steinem's classic essay "If Men Could Menstruate" comes to mind. She says that if men could menstruate,  "sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free." I similarly assert that if men could become pregnant, birth control would be federally funded and free.