Bethany Sousa, Senior Counsel

By Bethany Sousa, Senior Counsel,
National Women’s Law Center

Since Tuesday night, all anyone can do is talk about the fate of health care reform. Will it happen? If it does pass, what will it look like? While these are important questions, let’s not let our devotion to health care reform allow us to forget about today’s date, January 22nd, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

You might wonder, should I care? Is this date worthy of forgetting about health care reform, even for a minute? Luckily, we don’t have to choose, since abortion rights have played a starring role in the health care debate since the beginning.

For those of us working on abortion coverage in health care reform, the past few months have produced a stomach-churning ride over a predictably bumpy road. Restrictions on abortion coverage, as many know, were inserted into both the House and Senate bills. Almost as troubling, the debate over abortion coverage has meant watching our administration, some of our congressmen and women, and members of the public discuss our nation’s supposed aversion to public funding for abortion. 

by Bethany Sousa, Senior Counsel, 
National Women's Law Center 

Last night, the House of Representatives voted to finally allow the District of Columbia to decide for itself whether to use local funds to provide abortion health services for low-income residents. It is about time.