We’re one step closer to making affordable healthcare available to most people in this country. That is, however, not yet a guarantee. If the Senate follows through without adding any other debaucheries to the end result, that’ll be a huge surprise, so I’m not pulling out any party balloons.

And as I commented elsewhere:

Let’s be clear, too, that the House ban against women having control over their own bodies, which compels them to be incubators of unwanted babies, effectively targets only the poorest. Middle class and wealthy women will not have to endure this enslavement. They will continue to make the choice to bring a zygote through the stages of fetal development to live births or to abort that process. The choice will be theirs about what their bodies will do and how their lives afterward will be lived.

Poor women, though, will be forced breeders. Using some contraceptive methods, any man who she chooses to be intimate with will - if he wants - be able to make choices that can expose her to a much stronger likelihood of pregnancy without the woman’s knowledge.

With this amendment to the bill, the poor woman’s choice will be reduced to a life as a celibate or as a breeder. Additionally, as is often the case, many of the babies will be raised in poverty and their mothers will remain in poverty, precisely because of that forced outcome.

There is another known result, which every representative is aware of. Poor women will use homemade methods to induce abortions and some will lose their lives. That’s always been the case, historically. It was that reality that took abortion out of the hands of medical quacks a generation ago and made it safe and legal.

Western religions teach that God wants each person to make choices about their lives and does not indicate some should be denied. While it’s understood that some people of faith differ in their beliefs about the moment a human being’s life demands the protection of human laws, there is no debate that the woman’s life is already fully viable and deserving of such protection. And this new law strips away one of those protections.

Not a single man will die. More women will. And abortions will continue either way, just as history demonstrates they always have.

As one who’s been advocating for affordable national healthcare for more than 30 years, I certainly consider the life saving implications of the larger bill. But I cannot celebrate it at all. Sacrificing some lives to save others is not my choice and should not be our government’s choice. Half of our elected Congressional representatives are millionaires and none is enmeshed in poverty. They can continue their hollow arguments, but should the amendment remain in the bill, they’ve just sentenced many poor women to death for the ‘crime’ of having sex.

This bill is not a lifeboat of limited proportions. There is no reason to say we’ll save more lives but some will be cast overboard to drown. The Stupak amendment was an unnecessary brutality forced on Americans by the cruel and self-righteous representatives deluded into the belief that they were elected to enforce their moral codes on us at the expense of some of our lives.

Murderers they be.

I hope everyone will reflect on what has transpired and how to find a way to make this healthcare bill an advance that all just and compassionate people can celebrate. I am not relieved by anything yet. And I’m angry at those representatives who stood for the right to practice human sacrifice to appease the blood drinking gods inside their heads.

Thoughtful ruminations of others: Rayne at Firedoglake highlights the pluses and minuses. Ian Welsh has more that’s deserving of your consideration. And, with a hat tip to Lance Mannion for the link, Kathy Flake adds her important faith-based perspective.