Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest - Idaho

This is awesome! If I had kids, you can bet they'd be attending these classes.

That's awful. I'm glad to hear that the Arbiter didn't place them there themselves. I know some of the people that work on it and I can't see any of them doing something like that. If I can make it to Boise tomorrow I'll be there.

HURRAY!!!

(Ever so eloquently put by Ms. Rachel Maddow on 11/9/09)

Snatching electoral defeat from the jaws of victory here, Democrats have decided to pass monumental, sweeping, legacy-building health reform, inexplicably along with the biggest restriction on abortion rights in a generation. It's called the Stupak Amendment named for Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan. And if his amendment becomes law, if the bill passes as is, insurance companies across the country would likely stop covering abortions-period.

Stupak's language in the House bill says that anyone who gets a government subsidy to buy insurance through the health insurance exchange would be banned from buying any insurance plan that covers abortion services.... See More
So, if you're an insurance company that wants to participate in the new health insurance exchange, if you want access to this new pool of millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, choosing between insurance plans on the exchange-well, the CBO says about 90 percent of those people will be getting some kind of government subsidy in the exchange. And if they're getting any sort of government subsidy, they can't even choose your insurance plan if they want to, unless you drop abortion coverage.

The effect of this law isn't just no federal funding for abortions. That's the law now. The effect of this law is likely to be no insurance coverage for abortion in the United States-period.

With a single amendment, Congress is making a legal medical procedure potentially unattainable for a huge number of American women. All that conservative talk about the evil government getting involved in which medical procedures are covered and which aren't, it's conservatives who now, from Congress, are ruling out coverage nationally for one specific medical procedure for political reasons.

Congressman Stupak apparently got this language into the bill by promising lots and lots of conservative Democratic votes for health reform. And what he got was lots and lots of conservative Democrats, 26 of whom voted for his anti-abortion amendment, but then against the health reform bill anyway.

In response to the Stupak Amendment passing, 41 House Democrats have now said in writing that they won't vote for any final health reform bill that includes Stupak's language in it or anything like that.

Meanwhile, as a health reform vote approaches in the Senate, even supposedly pro-choice Democrats are now signaling that they're OK with the Stupak Amendment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: We're talking about whether or not people that get public money can buy an insurance policy that has any coverage for abortion. And that is not the majority of America. The majority of America is not going to be getting subsidies from the government. And so, I'm not sure that this is going to be enough to kill the bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Yes, I mean, we're only effectively banning abortion for people who get subsidies, people making less than $88,000 a year. Who cares about anybody making less than $88,000 a year, right?

This apparent lack of concern among supposedly pro-choice Democrats is made all the more relevant, given the news tonight that a pair of anti-choice Senate Democrats are already preparing similar language as what's in the House bill for the Senate version, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the man ultimately responsible for whether the anti-abortion language goes in or stays out, he doesn't exactly have a great record on supporting abortion rights. Senator Reid is personally against abortion rights and the National Abortion Rights Action League gave Senator Reid a whopping 20 percent voting rating last year.

The White House, for its part, has shifted its position on this issue as the day has gone on. While White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs hedged earlier in the day on the issue, President Obama told ABC News tonight, quote, "I want to make sure that the provision that emerges isn't restricting women's insurance choices. There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo."

Democrats not only want to pass health reform because they're interested in the policy change, but also because it is supposed to come with a lot of electoral spoils-leaving us to wonder what the electoral spoils will be for Democrats if they don't get women or anybody who's pro-choice to ever vote for them ever again.

Finally.

what, Minnick did something positive?