Senate Begins Debate on Health Care: Eschews Stupak, Funds Abstinence

Debate on the Senate version of the Health Care bill opened today with a mixed bag for those concerned about reproductive health.

On the plus side, the Senate Bill avoids Stupak language, instead offering private insurance a separate means by which it can set aside monies that could be used in case of abortion that do not interfere with government spending.

RH Reality Check reports that this approach "closely mirrors the Capps language which was originally included in the House and Senate Finance Committee bills, with an additional provision stating that the HHS Secretary must ensure that no federal funds are used for abortion." Additionally, in each State Exchange, where the uninsured will go to buy their insurance, there must be one plan available that provides abortion coverage beyond Hyde permissions, and one that plan does not.

Kasie Hunt at Congress Daily reports that this is an important safeguard, which "will make sure that an insurance company always has enough strictly private money to cover any abortion services its enrollees claim."

Despite avoiding Stupak language and resolves a lot of the problems of "preexisting conditions," there's one major caveat to support for this version of the bill by supporters of reproductive health. As Newsweek reports, the Senate bill will revive the Title V program, which had provided $50 million per year for abstinence-only education since the 90s -- a move that will ultimately lead to more unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

In a final twist, new government guidelines on mammograms and pap smears released this week recommend that these life-saving exams should now be started later in a woman's life, at age 50 and 30 respectively. The new guidelines being proposed are setting up what Air America calls a "booby trap" in the Health Care debate by derailing discussion of the bill and steering them to these new recommendations.

Photo: Flickr, Center for American Progress