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The Healthcare Reform bill has passed the House of Representatives in Congress with a 5 vote margin: 220-215! One GOP Representative voted in favor of the reform... Joseph Cao (R) of Louisana. I guess that makes this bill bi-partisan. Maybe Congressman Cao voted for healthcare reform with his beautiful daughters (pictured above) in mind. Maybe he didn't want the next generation to continue on the same path of messed up healthcare, so he voted for this "overhaul" (HA!) of the healthcare system. Or more realistically he voted for the reform knowing that his district is much more left-leaning than his party.
I would not want to be Joe Cao right now and face his party though. The GOP is probably ready to revoke his party membership... or worse. Good luck to him!
While a lot of folks are jumping up and down with joy over the passage of this bill, a monumental feat most definitely, I am not so ready to party because Reproductive Justice was thrown under the Healthcare Reform bus tonight in the Stupak/Pitts Amendment, which is a HUGE step backwards in Women's Health. As Planned Parenthood stated in an urgent press release:
Planned Parenthood condemns the adoption of the Stupak/Pitts amendment in HR 3962 this evening. This amendment is an unacceptable addition to the health care reform bill that, if enacted, would result in women losing health benefits they have today. Simply put, the Stupak/Pitts amendment would restrict women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market, undermining the ability of women to purchase private health plans that cover abortion, even if they pay for most of the premiums with their own money. This amendment reaches much further than the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited public funding of abortion in most instances since 1977.
If you feel the way I do about this Amendment... there's still hope! We have to get Congress to strip this amendment in conference. And for AAPI women, reproductive health matters are HUGE in terms of health disparities for our communities... So, don't stop working now! We got a lot of work left in this fight.
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| User | Points |
|---|---|
| curtis | 1928 |
| ebeh | 1161 |
| Madhuri | 1145 |
| erinjerri | 1074 |
| spamfriedrice | 551 |
| oliveoil | 457 |
| Calvin Prashad | 358 |
| JennyG | 281 |
| jenn | 219 |
| chriswong | 155 |
question for Spamfriedrice:
you were very quick to call the murder of Annie Le racially motivated, because the killer happened to be white and once belonged to a Asian awareness organization
but with the mountain of evidence for the motive for the shooting at Ft. Hood, are you prepared to call that a hate crime as well?
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