Throughout the health reform debate, efforts by ultra-conservatives in Congress to restrict women’s rights to health insurance coverage for abortion care became a passion play on the still-deeply sexist nature of politics in the United States, and the increasing intrusion into government policy and our personal lives of the political beliefs shared by fundamentalist Catholic and evangelical religious groups.

In the House, for example, white conservative "pro-life" male after white conservative "pro-life" male (both Democrats and Republicans) paraded into legislative chambers and onto the sets of cable news shows to argue vociferously about how deeply offensive to their own religious, moral, and political beliefs they found women’s ability to choose abortion. Anti-choice Democrats were joined in these floor statements by one woman, Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). And only two out of 56 female Democratic House members voted for the Stupak Amendment, further underscoring the gender faultlines running through this debate. 

In the Senate, the very same dynamic played out.  Yesterday’s debate found virtually every anti-choice male Republican and a handful of Democrats (and they are in fact all white males of considerable privilege) taking the podium to argue about how important it was to pass the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment (the Senate’s version of the Stupak Amendment).  The sole woman brought out to "soften" this image of the charge of the male brigade on women’s rights was Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) whose role was to throw softball questions at Senator Hatch so he could extol the moral and religious urgency of the Nelson amendment.

And virtually every one of the men who took the floor to argue in favor of the Nelson amendment invoked the "strong approval" of the amendment by the US Conference of Cathoiic Bishops, thereby shoring up their own "pro-life" and religious cred.

One critical exception among male Senators who describe themselves as "pro-life" came from a Democrat not generally known for his passionate speeches: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Let’s be clear: Reid, as he noted yesterday, has long championed effective efforts to expand access to family planning services and to prevent unintended pregnancy.  He is not, however, a consistent champion for choice when it comes to the right to choose abortion.  He has voted consistently in the past to continue the onerous Hyde Amendment restrictions, which in fact discriminate deeply against low-income women, and also as extended to federal employees and women in the military, create heavy burdens even on women who are in need of an abortion for the "acceptable" reasons (e.g. pregnancies resulting from rape and incest, and pregnancies that endanger the health and life of the woman). 

Yesterday, however, Reid nobly did what others should have done:   He put aside his personal issues to vote in favor of the greater good.

He understood in that moment the division between completely political posturing and the urgent needs of millions of Americans for effective health care.  And he knew that passage of the Nelson amendment would result in losing far more than the unlikely possibility) he would gain a couple of Republican votes for the final bill.

It is well worth watching the video of his speech:

"There were 45,000 funerals in America this year that stood out from the rest," Reid stated in his argument against the Nelson amendment.

They were tearful, as all funerals are.  They filled loved ones with sorrow and grief, as many of us know first-hand.  But these 45,000 funerals were also more tragic than most – because 45,000 times this year – nearly 900 times a week, more than 120 times a day, on average every 10 minutes, without end – Americans died as a direct result of not having health insurance.

"You’d have to be heartless not to be horrified," Reid continued.  "And [this number] doesn’t even include those who did have health insurance, but died because it was not enough to meet their most basic needs.

These people, are "what this is about," he stated

But it’s not even just about death. How many citizens in each of our states are bankrupt and broke because of our broken health system?  How many have to choose between their mother’s chemo treatments and their daughter’s college tuition?  How many have to work two or three jobs to provide for a family they are never home to see, all because of an accident or an illness that some insurance executive calls a pre-existing condition? So many of these tragedies could have been prevented.  And if our nation truly values the sanctity of life, as I believe it does, we will do everything we can to prevent them.

"That is why we are pushing so hard to make it possible for every American to afford good health.  It is why we can’t take no for an answer, and why we will not let the American people down. That value is also evident in the amendment before us today.

"I might oppose abortion, but that does not mean I am opposed to finding common ground for the greater good."

And he did.