In the article below, the National Network of Abortion Funds responds to Susan Cohen's article addressing the  potential impact of health care reform on the national abortion rate, "Politics Distorts Facts on Impact of Abortion Coverage." 

Anti-abortion forces are trying to use the debate over health care reform to reinforce unjust bans on abortion funding for poor women - and they hope to extend the denial of coverage to millions of additional women.   

Even though a majority of voters in a recent poll supported abortion coverage in health care reform, abortion foes are working night and day to convince Congress to ban abortion from health care reform.  (See national poll by the Mellman Group, June 25, 2009.) 

One of the tactics on the anti-abortion side is misuse of statistics.  For example, abortion opponents claim that increased coverage through health care reform would send the abortion rate skyrocketing.  They misinterpret data from the Guttmacher Institute to make this point.  On Wednesday, in response to such concerns, Guttmacher released a statement about the Hyde Amendment, the law that bans federal Medicaid coverage of abortion. Guttmacher notes that statistics on the impact of the Hyde Amendment cannot be extrapolated to the health care reform debate.  They also confirm that they do not expect to see a substantial rise in the abortion rate if Hyde is repealed.  

The National Network of Abortion Funds (the Network) agrees with these points and appreciates Guttmacher's ongoing efforts to document the effect of the Hyde Amendment and to work for its repeal.  We would like to take this opportunity to fill in details about the damaging reach of the Hyde Amendment and what it means in women's daily lives, as well as to reiterate a larger vision for real reproductive health care for low-income women. 

As Guttmacher notes, one in four women on Medicaid who would have an abortion if it were covered are instead compelled to continue the pregnancy.  Painful as this figure is, it is only a small piece of the impact of the Hyde Amendment.  Many more women are harmed by its discriminatory reach every year.  The tens of thousands of poor women on Medicaid who do manage to obtain abortions despite the Hyde ban on Medicaid coverage do so at enormous cost.  At the Network, we talk to women every day who are sacrificing food and clothing for themselves and their families.  In many cases, women have sold their cars or are living without electricity.  Too often, they need to use their rent money to cover abortion care and end up homeless.  Like so many other people who are devastated by the cost of health care in the U.S., they and their families are impoverished by the denial of coverage.  

In addition, Guttmacher's figures account only for those women enrolled in Medicaid at the time they seek an abortion, not the many more who do not enroll because Medicaid does not provide abortion coverage.  These women, too, are negatively affected by the Hyde Amendment.  Finally, as Guttmacher explains, if there is an expansion in Medicaid eligibility under health care reform, many thousands more women - we don't know the exact numbers yet - will be denied abortion care because of the Hyde Amendment.  Because of racial inequalities in the U.S., these low-income women will be disproportionately women of color. 

Health care reform was supposed to be about expanding care, not about expanding inequality.  Yet, the Obama Administration and the Democratically-controlled Congress are poised to preside over the largest cutback in reproductive health care for poor women and women of color in decades. Clearly, advocates face a stiff uphill fight to advance a health reform package that truly meets the needs of women and families. Let's face the facts: this plan won't be the one that pleases religious conservatives who believe they can dictate what kind of health care women receive.  It isn't likely to be the one that continues lining the pockets of health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. The plan we all need should, at minimum, contain a strong public option, provide coverage to all people in the U.S., and cover all basic health care, including the full spectrum of reproductive health care. 

Finally, on the question of abortion rates, while the anti-abortion groups continue to mislead, the real call to action is clear: we need to stop the denial of care and the imposition of great hardship on so many women and families. 

The National Network of Abortion Funds helped over 20,000 low-income women to pay for abortion care last year.  The Network also leads the Hyde: 30 Years Is Enough Campaign (www.nnaf.org).