Senate “compromise” on health care reform jeopardizes women’s health

This weekend, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scrambled to find a compromise on a health care bill that would satisfy all sixty Democrats, guaranteeing enough votes to pass the legislation without fear of a Republican filibuster.
Last week we heard about Senator Joe Lieberman’s stand-still which killed the public option and the Medicare buy-in for people over 55, which had been the public option compromise.
This weekend, despite the fact that Senator’s had defeated Senator Ben Nelson’s anti-abortion amendment previously (which looked a lot like the amendment from Representative Stupak that made it into the house bill), Reid negotiated this compromise, via the New York Times:

Under the agreement, states could choose to prohibit abortion coverage in the insurance markets, or exchanges, where most health plans would be sold.
But if a health plan did cover the procedure, subscribers would have to make two separate monthly premium payments: one for all insurance coverage except abortion and one for abortion coverage.

It’s been harrowing to watch this bill fall apart, or progressively whittle away all the pieces of the legislation that most liberals have said are non-negotiable. A number of national reproductive rights organizations have denounced the bill because of the anti-abortion provision, with Planned Parenthood going as far as to oppose the legislation (so does Shark Fu).

The compromise was denounced by advocates of abortion rights, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Organization for Women, Naral Pro-Choice America and the National Women’s Law Center.
“We have no choice but to oppose the Senate bill,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood.

It looks like the bill is all but passed in the Senate. We’ll have to see what this means for committee, when the Senate and House bills must be combined into one. There are bad abortion coverage provisions in both versions now, and a public option only in the House version.