Despite mixed reviews from the pro-choice community, Planned Parenthood of New Mexico applauds the passage of the Affordable Healthcare for America Act that will broaden coverage for so many New Mexico families.

Of course we are concerned about the abortion language in the new law.  The provision requiring insurance companies to segregate funds is onerous and unwieldy, likely resulting in the elimination of the coverage from private insurers.  At last count, 87% of employer-based insurance policies contained abortion coverage, which means most of us will lose coverage we currently have.  And we can look to the 5 states that already require separate abortion ‘riders’ for what we can expect – there is virtually no market for that type of coverage.  It makes sense – no one plans for an unplanned pregnancy.  None of this is good news.

So what is the good news?

The good news is that millions of women will have access to preventive care they don’t currently have.  We hope the result will be less demand for abortion.  By being able to use their insurance cards at Planned Parenthood medical offices across the country, more women will be able to avail themselves of reproductive health services they may not have been able to afford without their new coverage.  In New Mexico, many women make a little bit too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to pay for insurance.  Now those women will be covered.

More good news – the bill expands states’ Family Planning Medicaid waiver, which offers reproductive healthcare to low-income women.  New Mexico already has the Family Planning waiver, but this provision secures our state’s future funding.  In extremely uncertain economic times, that’s big good news.

Also laudable is the increase in funding for mandatory evidence-based comprehensive sex education.  As New Mexico has pinnacled at #1 in the US in teen pregnancy, this is very good news indeed.  The most effective recipe for reducing teen pregnancy rates is equal parts comprehensive sex education and access to affordable services.  After years of throwing money at counter-productive abstinence-only sex education, we have a lot of catch up work to do. New Mexico has some incredible reproductive health policies in place, but paltry funding to execute those policies.  So this is a good start, and we’re glad for it.

It is unfortunate and regrettable that President Obama was put in the position of having to sign the Executive Order codifying the Hyde Amendment in order to pass this historic legislation.  It speaks to a fundamental truth that we need more pro-choice representatives in Congress. We are hopeful that a series of administrative fixes will help reduce the bureaucratic burden on insurance companies to comply with this new law, and they will continue to offer the coverage most of us don’t even know we enjoy.

We hope you will join us in thanking Congressmen Heinrich and Lujan for their courageous and prescient vote.