I’m old enough to remember the “first” go round at health care reform back in 1993.  At the time, I believed that everyone had health insurance through work (like my parents) and I couldn’t fathom why the government couldn’t just give health care to the few people who didn’t have it.  (As a note to my readers, at the time I applied this same level of understanding to the provision of other basic need items like food, shelter, clothing and the latest Nirvana and Pearl Jam CDs.  I was, after all, 11.)  This time around, I know that we can’t wait another sixteen years to try again and that we have to figure out more than how to pay for it.

I’ve learned that under our current system, paying for health care doesn’t always mean getting health care and that paying a lot doesn’t guarantee better health care.  With deterrents like high deductibles, co-pays, prior-authorization, pre-existing conditions, and excluded services (to name a few), it is easy to understand how that happens.  $5000 for a family deductible may seem affordable to a Congressperson making $174,000 in a year, but when I consider that the median income for an American family is $50,233 per year, that deductible seems daunting for starters.  Furthermore, plans with deductibles that high almost always have co-pays and other hidden costs that continue to apply after the deductible is paid.  I think the first thing we should do to insure American families is guarantee affordability.  I define affordable as less than 7% of a family’s income – and that’s total cost, not just out of pocket expenses.  This will enable a family to use the insurance they have.

 Beyond making health care affordable, reform must provide Americans with the benefits they need.  For women, this is particularly critical.  Primary and preventive health care access is a given.  Beyond that, women need to have access to comprehensive health care.  This is particularly true when it comes to reproductive and sexual health.  Health care reform plans must include the following provisions for reproductive and sexual health:

• Confidential Care
• Choice of health care provider that is not limited by an HMO or PPO network
• Family planning education and methods
• Preconception Care
• Prenatal Care
• Labor and Delivery Care
• Access to hospital and non-hospital birth settings
• Postpartum care
• Miscarriage management
• Abortion and related after-care
• Prevention and/or testing and/or diagnosis and or/treatment of sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, sexual and erectile dysfunction, and reproductive cancers.

Now is the time for health care reform.  To do my part, I’ve contacted my Representative and Senators to tell them what I think.  I hope you’ll do the same.  Click here to contact your Representative.  Click here to contact your Senators.

As a result, I understand that health care workers who make abortion services available are everyday heroes.  But Dr. Tiller was different.  He was above and beyond the everyday.  He was a superhero.  And now he’s gone; brutally taken from this life in a way that many who disagreed with his work have implicitly condoned by failing to denounce his murder without qualification.  I haven’t yet fully verbalized my reaction to this event.  This is mostly because I like to accommodate and reassure others and I have no easy answers to the questions my thought will evoke.

My first two thoughts upon hearing of Dr. Tiller’s death were: 1. “Dear God, let this be a mistake.  Please – he can’t be dead,” and 2. “I hope I don’t get shot, too.”  The first part has been a somewhat universal reaction.  The second part requires explanation and reassurances that I don’t know how to provide because it’s out of my control.  This post is my attempt to explain that part and to share how Dr. Tiller’s death impacts my life.

For nearly a year now, the clinic I work at has been targeted by “pro-life” demonstrators.  At various points they’ve carried signs reading, “Family planners promote child promiscuity,” “Stop ALL Abortion,” “Birth Control Leads to Abortion,” etc.  Usually they come once a week on Thursday afternoons, although this spring they participated in the 40 Days for Life Campaign and their website indicates they’ll be doing it again this fall.  One of my responsibilities at work is to document the demonstrators.  This mostly involves takign a few pictures and writing a brief report about what happened that day.

 A little more than four weeks ago, this changed for me.  They had a new sign.  The sign reads, “God Bless Francis Irwin.”  I do not know how they got my name.  I do not know what they intended when they made the sign.  I’d like to pretend that this is no more than a joke in poor taste.  But the actions taken by a “pro-lifer” on Sunday make me question my assumption and my gumption.  Dr. Tiller was a superhero.  He did what few were willing to do.  He never failed to serve his patients regardless of the level of property damage, physical injury, and intimidation he was subjected to as a result of his service.  I am not an everyday hero.  I do not provide abortion services.  I am not a doctor or a nurse.  Our clinic has not been damaged and I have never been physically hurt by our demonstrators.  On a very few occasions, I have been frightened by the demonstrators’ actions.  After Sunday, I realize that I could be intentionally injured by someone who opposes my work.  To some extent allowing myself to worry about that feels like cowardice because Dr. Tiller was a superhero.  And that’s a lot to aspire to.

 Coincidentally, Tara Malone of the Chicago Tribune took a look at the issue in Illinois which ranks fourth in receipt of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage funds.  Her article, Sex ed: Abstinence-only programs under review, is a great read on the tough challenges that state faces.  As we see increasing numbers of teen pregnancies, births, and sexually transmitted infections, more communities are discussing the sex ed programs in their communities.  In my community, I know we have a curriculum for sex ed, but it’s hard to find out if it is being taught district wide.  What’s happening in your community?

The list is well worth the read for anyone who supports access to reproductive health care as it probably lays out our opposition’s strategy for the near future.  This is a great opportunity to thank our friends in the White House,  the House, and the Senate for their hard work and for supporting reproductive health care.  It is nice that most current policymakers are supportive; however, we cannot sit back and depend on them to protect us.  I think the best way we can thank the Heritage Foundation for sharing their views is to be ready with the rationale for these policy changes and to remind our allies (perhaps in a thank you note…) how the world and our nation will benefit from these changes.  We don’t need to bring the fight to them on this, but we need to be ready for it when it comes.  It’s the quickest way to avoid losing ground on the initiatives that will advance our mission and improve access for those we serve.

This week is an exciting week for me.  Through my work at Below The Waist, work I love to do by the way, I am getting the chance to go to New York City and attend the national “Speak Out” hosted by Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need.

I will be in New York City for the rest of the week and will have a chance to meet and learn from som of the greatest leaders and advocates in this field. I really could not be more excited for the chance. 

Through Below The Waist, I have been lucky enough to have had a chance to meet with and interview some of the true luminaries, the inspirational forces in this movement.  Now to get a chance to be around what I would call a tremendous concentration, well that is like adding a scoop of ice cream to a well frosted cake of greatness.

We have been working in partnership with RWV for a while now, and are going to launch a sister site to include the stories we have heard over the months.  Look for that coming soon.

For more information on the event, take a look at the agenda.  If you would like to meet up, please find me on Twitter at twitter.com/belowthewaist.  I look forward to seeing you.

Today we had some of the world’s smallest, happiest, and politest protesters. Everyone should smile for the camera.

I was born in 1982 on the day before Roe v. Wade’s 9^th Anniversary.  I’ve never lived in an America where it wasn’t possible for a woman to choose safe and legal abortion.  I’ve heard stories of what it was like before 1973, but to me it seemed more like a fairytale from the Dark Ages than the reality of a few decades ago.  In honor of Women’s History Month, I sat down with Mary Ann.  Mary Ann was a nurse in a critical care unit before 1973.  She saw and tried to save women dying from illegal and unsafe abortion.  In this podcast, she shares with us what that was like and her hopes for the future of women’s health.  We also spoke to Rachel Benson Gold about reproductive health care in America.  In that conversation, she discussed where we need to go from here.  We included that portion of the conversation here as a reminder of what we can do to avoid repeating the pain of our past.

I found this exchange ironic on many levels.

Today we had to ask one of the protesters to move his truck out of our parking lot. I understand that it’s inconvenient to have to walk a few blocks, but I’d rather inconvenience him than the parents coming into our WIC clinic who need to negotiate strollers and car carriers. This time of year, you never know when the temperature is going to change and the sidewalks will suddenly turn into skating rinks. I’m very grateful that to date this is the largest inconvenience we’ve encountered. I’m hopeful things will continue to be respectful.