By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Star feminist Gloria Steinem joined a host of female politicians and activists Monday morning to speak out against an abortion amendment in the federal health care reform bill.
The legislation, called the “Stupak-Pitts Amendment,” would prohibit insurers who participate in the federal health care plan proposed by the House from being able to ever cover abortion services.
That means thousands of Manhattan women could be left thousands of dollars out of pocket every year, a fact that had politicians such as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Carolyn Maloney and City Council speaker Christine Quinn outraged Monday.
“Without proper coverage, women will be forced to postpone care,” Gillibrand said, “Or, they will be forced to return to dangerous, back alley providers.”
Each year, approximately 12,000 New York City women get an abortion, according to the city's Department of Health. Between 46 to 87 percent of typical employer-based health policies cover abortion, according to studies done by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Guttmacher Institute.
For Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York City division of the National Organization of Women, and Lillian López, president of the Hispanic Federation, the matter deeply personal.
Ossorio spoke of her experience getting an abortion at the age of 40 because of a problematic pregnancy.
“I can’t imagine what I would have done without insurance,” Ossorio said. “This is the cruelest restriction we’ve seen on abortion rights since abortion became legal.”
López said that she had had an abortion at the age of 17 — something she had never told her mother until Monday — and that she owed her safe experience to the subsidies available to her.
Planned Parenthood of New York says that New York in unique in that state Medicaid will cover abortion procedures, but an agency spokesperson said it is unclear whether or not that resource would be threatened if the amendment passes.
“This is outrageous," Gillibrand said. "It signals the beginning of the end of Roe v Wade.”
