On December 24th, the Senate passed its version of health care reform. Like the House bill, the Senate version contained overly burdensome restrictions on insurance that covers abortion while stigmatizing the procedure and women who wish to have abortion coverage.

Send a letter to your members of Congress and ask them not to put politics before the lives and health of women.

The Senate bill is different from the House version, but it contains the following burdens on abortion coverage:

- It invites States to ban the coverage of abortion in State insurance exchanges so that a woman who buys her insurance through the state insurance exchange will not be able to buy a plan that covers abortion even if no federal dollars are being spent to supplement her plan.

- If the State allows abortion coverage in the plans offered through its exchange, women would still have to pay for the abortion coverage by writing a separate check. If a woman's insurance is through her employer or a spouse's employer, the employer will have to write a separate check which might be a disincentive for employers to purchase plans with abortion coverage.

- Provides anti-discrimination protection for medical professionals and facilities who refuse to perform abortion but does not provide the same protection from health professionals who do provide women with the full range of reproductive health care they need.

The bureaucratic burdens and disincentives set up by the Senate plan will likely encourage insurance companies not to offer abortion coverage which could jeopardize the coverage that millions of women already have.

Members of the House, Senate, and Obama Administration are meeting now to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the health care reform bill. They need to be reminded that they should not sacrifice women in the process. Write your members of Congress now!