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| Aaron Bouren, Karen Fennell, Me, Scott Smith |
I met Aaron Bouren at the Controversies in Childbirth conference, and I am still recovering. If you ever have the chance to meet this guy you will know what I’m talking about. Everything about Aaron is big - his six-foot-plus frame has to be huge to contain his passion, his ideals, his heart. He is throwing all of his power behind uninsured mothers, and he is a force to be reckoned with. His energy is infectious, and I left the conference feeling like I can truly help make changes for women and mothers in this country.
His latest fight is to make sure that pregnant women get the quality prenatal care they need and deserve. A HUGE number of women do not have insurance coverage. As I learned from Aaron, these women are from all walks of life; self-employed business women, women earning just barely too much in wages to qualify for Medicaid, and even women who have group health insurance coverage through their employer but can be denied medical coverage for the pregnancy due to archaic and unfair policies.
I was stunned when I learned that women have actually been told by hospitals and insurance providers that they should “abort it if you can’t afford it” when they contact them to ask for help. That is when I realized what was fueling Aaron’s fire and drive because I got fired up too. Through the Maternity Health Foundation, the Gift of Life Campaign aims to get 250 uninsured mothers the prenatal care they need by May 10th, 2009 (Mother’s Day).
I have already signed up and Adopted a Mom, and have pledged to raise $1000 so one of these women can be told on Mother’s Day that they matter, that their baby’s life and health matters, and they do not have to worry about the astronomical costs of prenatal care. If you want to join with me and help raise $1000 together, you can click the link below and contribute. I will present a check to The Maternity Health Foundation by May 10. Your donation is completely tax-deductible, and you will get a receipt from Maternity Health.
If we are a society that truly values life, then we need to create an environment in which life does not have a monetary value placed upon it; where a woman’s decision to keep her baby is not dependent on her financial situation; where prenatal care is not a luxury that some women can not afford.
If you do nothing else, please click this link and listen to one woman tell her story. I hope it inspires you to either Adopt A Mom yourself, become a pledge leader in your community, or join with me to help.
April 7th, 2009 - 3:49 pm
who exactly is telling women this? doctors? employers? The ever elusive “they” ?? I see where you say *who* is apparently being told this, but who is it apparently telling them to abort?
I’m totally behind the cause of helping women obtain quality care without financial means being a qualifier… I’ve heard people told to either not get pregnant or have children if they can’t afford it, or if already pregnant to consider adoption if they can’t afford it… (neither of which I agree with either - people should be able to choose to have families regardless of socioeconomic status)..
but I haven’t heard the encouragement of abortion for financial reasons.. Was there a survey of women who had abortions that showed a significant number who did it because they were told they couldn’t afford prenatal care? I’m just wondering where the statement comes from.
Isn’t the cause of making sure every woman has access to quality care regardless of her financial standing a strong enough cause without making it an abortion issue?
April 7th, 2009 - 7:08 pm
I am tearing up at this one. I was one of those moms. made too much for medicare, was denied coverage for “a pre-exsisting condition”, thankfully i was never told to abort it. I hunted and hunted for a program just like this. I thought there has to be someone out there that cares!! WHERE WERE THEY 3 years ago!!!!
April 8th, 2009 - 5:26 am
Mindy, so many women get trapped in this cycle. I had no idea it was this bad. The whole “pre-existing condition” clauses are a total cop-out by the insurance companies. They get richer, and mothers don’t go to a care provider during pregnancy to save money. It is ridiculous!
Michelle, that statement is directly from Aaron and the people he works with. These women call them for help in tears, with nowhere else to turn. They’ve been going through the various channels trying to negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals, talking to the insurance companies - we all know how frustrating that is on a regular day anyway.
I have no idea why, when they are asking these companies for help, that abortion would be thrown in their face. However, these women realize that abortion is far cheaper than carrying the baby to term and giving birth. They are saddled with medical debt right as they will be stretched to the limit to care for the baby after it’s born.
The other thing I realized from this conference was that abortion, affordable prenatal care, and choices in childbirth are all related topics. Laws put into place that are intended to apply to one issue (abortion) impact women’s choices at birth (the baby is a person and has more rights than the mother, so she can be forced into a Cesarean against her will and she can be charged with neglect and endangerment of her unborn child).
I thought abortion was a completely separate topic as well, and unfortunately it is not. Especially with the cost of medical and prenatal care sky-high. Who has $10k to pay out-of-pocket to give birth? It’s ridiculous!
If you haven’t seen Sicko yet, you really should. The medical care and insurance coverage situation in this country has got to change. Companies are putting their profits above our health, and it is disgusting.
April 8th, 2009 - 6:36 am
How is that fair?? Claiming abuse to the unborn child when the government doesn’t give the mother a chance in HELL of obtaining insurance? You’re screwed if you do, you’re screwed if you don’t… It makes me want to puke!
I can’t believe I”m bringing her up, but my husband’s ex wife was in this situation with my stepdaughter. They were a newly married couple and didn’t qualify for medicare. As a result, she hardly got any prenatal care. She went to maybe 3 checkups. As a result, she almost died during childbirth. Had she gone the dr, she’d have known that her placenta was growing thru her uterus. While she didn’t get “abort if you can’t afford”, she was denied vital prenatal care! I agree, our insurance situation SHOULD be ammended, and quickly!
April 8th, 2009 - 9:57 am
This is such a personal issue for me. Having worked in a hospital I saw so many people coming in who hadn’t had ANY prenatal care at all to make sure they had enough money for the birth. However, a good portion of them resulted in cesarean, which didn’t keep the cost down at all.
I believe this was mentioned in Spiritual Midwifery, but Ina May talked about doing a program back in the day for something like this. Her center gave free maternity care to women considering abortions. After good company (with other women of their predicament), good food, and good prental care, most of these women went on to have wonderful, nonsurgical births.
When I’m a midwife I’d love to do something similar.
December 4th, 2009 - 8:40 am
Nice article. I like your focus on decisions