[National Organization for Women President Terry] O'Neill said as a result of Nelson's amendment, "insurance companies will in a few years stop offering abortion care even in private policies because it's too much of an administrative hassle," forcing women to "pay for abortions out of their own pockets."Put yourself in NOW's shoes. Progressives across the board were cut out of the process of forming the current health care reform bills in the House and Senate. Republican concerns and conservative Democrat concerns were addressed at each and every step of the way, while progressives and liberals were ignored because everyone just assumes that progressives will have to suck it up and support the bill anyway. Now both health care bills, the House and Senate, have language that pro-choice groups find untenable. Those groups, who were cut out of the process, can either support the legislation and admit that they're irrelevant to the process, or they can try to find a way to stay relevant, try to find a way to help their community and their issue now and in the future.
"That's the conclusion of the George Washington University School of Public Health," she added.
"The Nelson amendment achieved the same outcome -- through very different means -- as the Stupak-Pitts amendment over on the House side. It takes a little bit longer, maybe 2 to 4 years longer."
"Health care is a basic human right, and both the Senate bill and the House bill presume to take this human right away only from women, and not from men. Only women are targeted. So we say, you know what, kill the health bill entirely."
Regardless of whether you want the current House and Senate bills to pass, you need to look at this politically. When you cut people out of the process, you don't give them a stake in the outcome. And when you affirmatively harm those same people in the process, you actually give them an incentive to oppose you in the end, both on substantive grounds and on political grounds as well. If NOW, and women's groups in general, are ignored by Democrats, and the legislation passes, including language that is harmful to pro-choice women, then NOW becomes irrelevant, and more generally, pro-choice women become irrelevant. That is an untenable position for any interest group, and for any community.
This is why you involve people in the process from the beginning, and you listen and act on their concerns. Otherwise, when you need them in the end, they feel no need to help you after you saw no need to help them first.
Or in simpler term, we've all had that friend who only calls whenever they need something, but they're never around when WE need something in return. After a while, you stop taking that friend's calls.
