Posted on January 13, 2012 |
The constitutional fight over the health care law is a fight with high stakes for women’s health and women’s rights. Today, the National Women’s Law Center filed a brief on behalf of 61 women’s organizations and civil rights groups urging the Supreme Court to reject the constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s individual responsibility provision.
As Speaker Pelosi stated on the night the House approved the legislation, “It’s personal for women. After we pass this bill, being a woman will no longer be a preexisting medical condition.” A primary purpose behind the ACA was improving women’s health and women’s access to insurance, by ending the insurer practice of denying coverage to women who previously had Caesarean section or survived domestic violence; banning insurers from charging women higher premiums than men; prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded health programs; expanding Medicaid to cover more than 8 million additional low-income women, guaranteeing maternity coverage; providing Pap smears, mammograms, lactation counseling, and family planning without copayments; and more. Those challenging the ACA before the Supreme Court are arguing that the entire law, including all of these provisions so essential to women, should be struck down. The ACA litigation is in many important ways a women’s rights case. Read more »
