The biggest decision health care decision since Obamacare is taking effect this May. Public Act 182 of 2013, known as the “Rape Insurance Bill” or the “Insurance Opt Out Bill” was passed on December 11th, 2013 and has begun taking place this March. This bill requires a separate rider to be purchased for health insurance for abortion including in cases of incest or rape. The "citizen-initiated" law, backed by Right to Life of Michigan, will take effect in March without crossing the governor's desk or appearing on the statewide ballot next year. Michigan Right to Life was able to gather enough signatures representing a mere 4.2% of Michigan voters to put a bill before the state legislature. I find it appalling that less than 5% of Michigan voters can make a decision for the other 95% of Michigan residents. “This tells women who were raped … that they should have thought ahead and planned for it,” said Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat from East Lansing. This statement summarizes the argument clearly. Rape is not something that should be planned for. Planning for rape shows that as a society we are desensitized to this horrific act, and that it is a common place event. It sends the message that rape victims are to blame, as they should plan ahead for such things, by buying the rape insurance. During the Debates Whitmer disclosed that she was a victim of rape. “It’s something I’ve coped with privately for many years now, but I felt it was important for my Republican colleagues to see the face of the women they’re hurting with their actions today. Thank god I didn’t get pregnant as the result of my own attack, but I can’t even begin to imagine now having to think about the same thing happening to my own daughters.... ... middle of paper ... ..., “Insurers had to tell the state in February if they planned to offer and sell the abortion riders. That means anyone who purchases insurance as an individual — either inside or outside the new federal health-care exchange — will not be able to obtain coverage for abortion services.” The Detroit Free Press stated “It’s unclear how much the riders in the employer-sponsored plans will cost.” This is one of the components that I find particularly unsettling. College students are one of the largest groups that are uninsured in America, and are at the greatest risk for needing the insurance riders, because over 50% of rapes take place on college campuses. I feel that those individuals who would be unable to pay out of pocket for services, will be unable to afford the extra cost each month (like college students), which has been estimated as high as an extra $15 a month.
When university or police find out about the sexual assault, they immediately blame the victim or question what the victim was wearing, drinking, or doing. “Brownmiller identified four basic rape myths: (1) All women want to be raped; (2) a woman cannot be raped against her will; (3) a woman who is raped is asking for it; and (4) if a woman is going to be raped, she might as well enjoy it” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 432). In The Hunting Ground, the rape myth, which a woman who is raped is asking for it, is seen throughout the testimonies of the survivors. Clark, herself, was told by her dean that “rape is like a football game” and asked if “looking back, what would you have done differently?” (Ziering & Dick, 2015). These rape myths affect how many victims actually report and how seriously sexual assaults are taken within universities and the justice system. For example, some women, themselves, subscribe to rape myths because they see how current cases are handled. “Women who did not physically fight off the person who raped them and who subscribed to the rape myth that “it can’t be rape if a woman doesn’t fight back” were less likely to acknowledge that they had been raped” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 434). Universities need to teach first-year students about consent and how to
(ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare). With all the new mandates under the Affordable Care Act the state average for insurance premium increase is about 10.5% which is about another $1,294. For some people this can be a lot of money for health insurance benefits that they may not even use but are mandated as a part of the Affordable Care Act (Pipes). The premiums sky rocketed after the Affordable Care Act was put into effect in 2011 compared to the trend in the few years before (Appendix Figure
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “it would do some women good to get raped,” from a historical perspective, lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Women are still seen as the property of men, are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today’s world. Men are usually more aggressive, and women are seen as passive. (Vogelman) This socialization process is changing, but slowly.
The Texas anti-abortion law has taken the country’s attention by storm. It is an issue on many different woman’s minds, especially those who live in the state of Texas. The new laws are forcing many woman to have to cross state lines in order to receive an abortion and medical care. This includes woman who needs abortions due to preexisting medical conditions and those who are carrying fetuses which are diseased and are expected not to be born as healthy babies. The Texas Governor Rick Perry and Senator Ted Cruz are leading the fight for the abortion laws to become permanent, laws that are considered the strictest abortion laws that this country has ever seen.
In the absence of an agreement determining when life begins, state sovereignty has allowed state legislators the authority to shape a state’s policy on abortion. Thus, what has occurred across the United States is the ability for states to enact legislation which places severe limitations on when and how a pregnancy may be te...
If the United States had unlimited funds, the appropriate response to such a high number of mentally ill Americans should naturally be to provide universal coverage that doesn’t discriminate between healthcare and mental healthcare. The United States doesn’t have unlimited funds to provide universal healthcare at this point, but the country does have the ability to stop coverage discrimination. A quarter of the 15.7 million Americans who received mental health care listed themselves as the main payer for the services, according to one survey that looked at those services from 2005 to 2009. 3 Separate research from the same agency found 45 percent of those not receiving mental health care listing cost as a barrier.3 President Obama and the advisors who helped construct The Affordable Care Act recognized the problem that confronts the mentally ill. Mental healthcare had to be more affordable and different measures had to be taken to help patients recover. Although The Affordable Care Act doesn’t provide mentally ill patients will universal coverage, the act has made substantial changes to the options available to them.
On the side of those who not only advocate the bill but created it there is a very complicated idealism rooted in religion, state rights, and morality. As chairwoman Jane Nelson has said herself, “We [state government] have every right to exclude abortion providers and their affiliates from this program” (Aaronson, 2013). This view comes from a stand mixed with the role different parts of government play and the moral view of what abortion truly is; a simple medical procedure or an act of murder. Despite their goals to remove abortion and abortion providers from the medical providers of Texas, they do feel that they also “have a responsibility to ensure that [the women of Texas] have alternatives in their community” (Aaronson, 2013) and claim this is where the focus of their legal battles will be heading towards. For the argument of women’s health, many of those for the new bill believe that it will improve health care for women across the state, as they believe “the ideal world is one without abortion,” (Wissert, 2013) and I think most agree. Those for the bill conclude that this is the way to create a saf...
The Supreme Court case, Planned Parenthood of PA v. Casey, wasn’t known for what it did, but mainly for what it did not do, which was not overruling Roe v. Wade, but reaffirming a woman’s right to an abortion; it questioned a state’s right to impose or place an “undue burden” on women. Planned Parenthood of PA v. Casey was argued on April 22, 1992 and the official decision was reached on June 29, 1992. The case dealt with a couple of “hot topics” including privacy and abortion. At the time, Pennsylvania had made a new abortion control law in 1988 and it was finalized in 1989. This law requires all women to get informed consent and wait twenty-four hours before they are allowed to get an abortion.
Health insurance, too many American citizens, is not an option. However, some citizens find it unnecessary. Working in the health care field, I witness the effects of uninsured patients on medical offices. Too often, I see a “self-pay” patient receive care from their doctor and then fail to pay for it. Altogether, their refusal to pay leaves the office at a loss of money and calls for patients to pay extra in covering for the cost of the care the uninsured patient received. One office visit does not seem like too big of an expense, but multiple patients failing to pay for the care they receive adds up. Imagine the hospital bills that patients fail to pay; health services in a hospital are double, sometimes triple, in price at a hospital. It is unfair that paying patients are responsible for covering these unpaid services. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare. Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to be health insured, no worrying about pre-existing conditions, and free benefits for men and women’s health.
The congressional bills are similar to a Nebraska law that was struck down by a five-justice majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 in the case of Stenberg v. carhart. After carefully examining that ruling, the leading sponsors of the bill decided that it would be more productive to focus on other pro-life bills for the remainder of this congressional session. (National Right to Life News, August 2000)
Rationale for banning abortions late in pregnancy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 744-747, 1998. Guttmacher Institute. State Policies on Later-Term Abortions. State Policies in Brief.
To be able to get an abortion, there are many restrictions that apply. Every state may different but similar restrictions when the law was formed in 1973. Even with the restrictions, many women were still choosing abortions. “The mandatory restrictions include: waiting periods typically from 24-48 hours before women receive the procedure; counseling stressing the disadvantages of abortions; requirements that minors notify their parents or receive their consent before obtaining an abortion; and prohibitions on providing abortions at public facilities,” (Glazer 1). Some women either could
With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the majority of Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this private choice for herself. Anti-choice proposals to ban abortions for “sex-selection” or “birth-control” are smokescreens designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this issue and trivialize the seriousness with which millions of women make this highly personal decision. Any government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force all women to publicly justify their reasons for seeking abortion.
Inertwined with rape myths, are subsequent rape scripts. As Ryan (2011) and Clay-Warner and McMahon-Howard (2009) showed, depending what script is prevalent or dominant, reporting rates and overall acknowledgement can be greatly affected. Our understanding of what constitutes a rape or sexual assault needs to significantly change otherwise countless victims will remained silenced. If the understanding of these crimes was broadened, and the acquaintance scenarios taken more seriously, more victims would come forward, report, and get the help they may desperately need, in addition to aiding the legal system in punishing the offender and improve society’s population.
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “women secretly enjoy rape,” from a historical perspective, can lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Much stems back to the idea that women are still seen as the property of men, and are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today’s world. Men a...