In Massachusetts Senate Primary, Which 2 Candidates Support Abortion Rights?
On December 8, 2009, 4 major candidates are vying for the Democratic Party nomination for Senate in Massachusetts. Only 2 of those candidates strongly support a woman’s right to choose legal abortion.
The Stupak Amendment to health care reform legislation in the House was added in order to prohibit any private insurance plan (even those paid for by private money) from offering abortion coverage, if as few as one single participant in that plan received a partial subsidy from the federal government to help buy insurance. If passed into law as part of health care reform, Bart Stupak‘s Amendment would lead to the almost complete disappearance of insurance coverage for legal abortion, effectively making abortion the privilege of women of means.
A man of means whose wealth has bought him a place in the Massachusetts Senate race, Stephen Pagliuca, has declared that he’d accept this diminishment of abortion rights in America if it meant the passage of health care reform. Joining him in this position is fellow Democratic Senate candidate Alan Khazei. In the House of Representatives, Michael Capuano voted against the Stupak Amendment. Running for an open U.S. Senate seat, Mike Capuano is joined by Mass. Attorney General Martha Coakley in declaring that a Senate bill with the equivalent of the Stupak Amendment in it is unacceptable.
Who’s willing to draw a line in the sand and say “No” to a compromise of autonomy? For those voters who believe strongly in the preservation of women’s reproductive rights and the principle that government should stay out of the business of regulating women’s bodies, the difference between the Coakley-Capuano stalwart pro-choice side and the more mushy Khazei-Pagliuca position is instructive.
