Slightly Unhinged

Nov

Stop the Abortion Coverage Ban

Categories: Advocacy, Politics and health
Tags: abortion, health care reform, political action, reproductive rights

As important as health care reform is, we can’t let it come at the expense of women’s reproductive rights. If the Senate adopts the same Stupak-Pitts amendment that passed in the House bill:

It will be virtually impossible for private insurance companies participating in the new system to offer abortion coverage to women.
This would have the effect of denying women the right to use their own personal, private funds to purchase an insurance plan with abortion coverage in the new health system — a radical departure from the status quo.

Please take a moment to join the more than 33,000 pro-choice Americans who understand that we must fight to protect women’s reproductive rights and make sure that this abortion-coverage ban is not included in the Senate bill.

Add your name to NARAL’s petition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Nov

Why are so many American Christians against health care reform?

By courtnaysb Leave a Comment

Categories: Politics and religion
Tags: health care reform, Politics, religion

During my summer of health care rallies and town hall meetings, I had the opportunity to talk to many people on both sides of the health care debate and it never ceased to amaze me that most people who identified as Christian were against health care reform. I don’t consider myself a Christian now but I have more than a passing familiarity with the Bible, having spent my fair share of time in Sunday school growing up and even attending private Catholic school for a while. Didn’t Jesus spend most of his time ministering to the poor and downtrodden? He was all about feeding the hungry and caring for the sick. I get the sense that universal health care is an idea he would have liked…so why is it that so many of his American followers see health care reform as somehow un-Christian? It never made sense to me. Tonight I came across an article by a progressive Christian that discusses just that. I recommend reading the whole article but here is my favorite quote:

Forgive the note of bitterness, but my word to American Christians who show more devotion to John Locke than to Jesus in respect to their “I’ve got mine” ideology: We’ll see you in Hell with your good buddy, Dives. And to the patriarchal types who told Speaker Pelosi late last week that they could not support any legislation giving them less than total victory on the abortion issue: Why not be man enough to just come out and say it? You have never liked women, you fear women, and now you would even sink the chance of providing coverage for 36 million currently uninsured persons—including many of the children and immigrants you claim to love—rather than accept a carefully-negotiated compromise on women’s reproductive health.

With Christians like these, who needs other enemies? And will anyone wonder why, with each new poll or census, more Americans will be marking “none” or “atheist” or “anything but Christian” on the religion section?

via Bad Religion Leaves Big Bruises: When Christians Threaten Health Care Reform | RDPulpit | ReligionDispatches.

Oct

The Business of Being Born

By courtnaysb Leave a Comment

Categories: Advocacy, health and parenting
Tags: Advocacy, childbirth, health, parenting

I finally got around to watching The Business of Being Born earlier today and while it is a great documentary on the medicalization of childbirth in the United States that should be required viewing for all parents-to-be, it also made me incredibly sad and angry. It makes me sad that most women here in the US miss out on having the kind of empowering and transformative birth experience like I was fortunate enough to have and like most of the women in this film have as well. It makes me angry that almost every woman I know who has given birth in the last 10-15 years has experienced a “cascade of interventions” that ultimately lead to a C-section…except for the women I knew through my attachment parenting groups, where the opposite was true – only one or two had C-sections. What was the difference? The majority of the attachment parenting folks chose midwives. The film points out that midwives attend 70-80% of all births in Europe and Japan but the number in the US is only 8% – and the US has much higher maternal and infant mortality rates than the countries where midwifery is the norm. It’s just another example of how we pay more for worse outcomes but beyond that, it’s heartbreaking that most women are so removed from the reality of natural childbirth that they don’t even know what they are missing.

Oct

Tell Congress to pass Paid Sick Days today!

By courtnaysb Leave a Comment

Categories: Advocacy, Politics and health
Tags: Advocacy, health, political action

From MomsRising.org:

Nearly half of all private sector workers don’t have access to the paid sick days they need–that means they may have no choice but to go to work sick, or send sick kids to school, risking spreading germs to everyone. You can help millions of people by telling Congress to pass a Paid Sick Days Law now! It’s good for economic security and public health!

Just click on the link below to send a message to your members of Congress about this very important issue:

Tell Congress to pass Paid Sick Days today!

Oct

Being a woman is not a preexisting condition

By courtnaysb Leave a Comment

Categories: Advocacy and Politics
Tags: Advocacy, health care reform, political action

Did you know that being a victim of rape or domestic violence can be considered a “preexisting condition” by insurance companies, which can in turn cause women to be charged higher premiums for their health insurance coverage? The National Women’s Law Center has compiled some great information about this on their site, along with a form you can use to write to your representatives in Congress to demand health care reform legislation that meets the needs of women and children.