Can feminists and Democrats still be friends?

Feminists have some reckoning to do with Democrats now that the health care bill is signed into law. It was a huge win for the party, but whether it was a similar victory for women is not as clear. On the one hand, the bill offers many positive changes for women all over the country. On the other hand, we watched as abortion became a major sticking point and eventually a bargaining chip for the passage of the bill itself. Now we have to decide how to relate to the Democratic Party moving forward.

The National Women’s Law Center gives us three reasons to celebrate the bill: maternity care will be covered by basic insurance, gender rating--when women are charged higher premiums than men--will be eliminated, and 4.5 million new women will be eligible for Medicaid. (The Guttmacher Institute did an even more in-depth look at the bill’s impact on women here.) But RaceWire looked at a map and noted that while more women will be able to enroll in Medicaid, abortion will only be covered by it in 17 states. And restrictive abortion language was left in the bill, which requires those who receive federal subsidies to buy coverage in the new state-run insurance exchanges to separate their premiums into a check for abortion services and a check for everything else. (This is widely expected to deter insurance companies from covering abortion at all in order to avoid the complications.) President Obama also signed an executive order at the last minute to reinstate the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision that bars federal funds from paying for abortions, for another year as a compromise with the anti-choice House contingency (mostly Bart Stupak).

The full spectrum of women’s reactions in the wake of the bill was made clear in statements from leading women’s rights groups: from celebration to complete rejection. Planned Parenthood threw its support behind the bill and spent five paragraphs on the positives. NARAL Pro-choice America could not endorse the bill because of the “egregious abortion-coverage restrictions” still included, while recognizing that it will give more women insurance coverage. NOW stood firmly against the bill, citing a “tragic setback” for women’s rights while spending no time on the positive effects.

So where do feminists and Democrats stand?

I am as frustrated as any other feminist when I watch abortion rights slowly erode state by state, only to now be tamped down at the federal level. It can feel like the Democratic Party has turned against us when they vote for a bill that makes access to a legal procedure (and right) more complicated. If no one stands up for these rights they will continue to deteriorate. The anti-choice movement is being heard loud and clear and the pro-choice movement has to shout over them. We deserve to be heard.

One option we can choose is to forswear all loyalty to the Democratic Party and vow to seek revenge for its capitulation. But by splintering off from the party we risk losing our voice within it. Holding our representatives accountable to our values is essential; fighting for new congressmen who better represent our views is absolutely necessary; but breaking with the party risks an even more diminished voice on Capitol Hill. Whether or not you agree with our two-party system, the only other party in power is the Republican Party—a party we certainly can’t turn to.

I also watch the Republican Party go on a witch hunt for RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and “fake” conservatives (as a recent example, the firing of David Frum from right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation for saying the GOP should have cooperated more on health care) and know that I don’t want to be like them. The Democrat’s Big Tent is frustrating, because it welcomes men like Bart Stupak and Ben Nelson, who are strict conservatives on the issue of abortion. But trying to define a movement in rigid terms is leading to the fracture of the GOP. All or nothing can leave you with nothing. That means a smaller party and a smaller base of power. It’s no coincidence that Democrats hold two majorities in congress after opening their arms to a broad range of views.

There is also a lot to lose in being a single issue voter. Political “purity,” as Katha Pollitt at The Nation points out, is one of the most frustrating aspects of the anti-choice movement, which views restricting abortion through a myopic lens. She reminds us, “One thing you can’t call [prochoice leaders] is selfishly obsessed with their own political purity. That would be the antichoicers … who were willing to let millions suffer and 45,000 people die every year unless they got to deprive women of their reproductive rights.” While it is important to protect a woman’s right to choose and access an abortion, zeroing in solely on that issue neglects all of the other important things that women need to fight for.

This isn’t to say that we should tone down our fight for feminist voices in Washington. For me, and I think for many women like me, the health care debate was a serious wake-up call about the dire situation of women’s rights in this country. While the pro-choice movement was willing to be reasonable and keep the fight over abortion separate, the anti-choice movement ignored that call—and were strong enough to muscle congress around. Pollitt, in the same piece, calls for some “payback” in the form of pro-woman and pro-choice legislation in return for our willingness to set the issue aside for the greater cause of passing a comprehensive bill. The fight for what women deserve continues.

We also need to remind the country of our pro-choice majority, not just in the population, but within the Democratic Party itself. As Stupak pursued a last-ditch attempt to insert more restrictive abortion language into the bill before the House voted on the version, Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, co-chairwoman of the Pro-Choice Caucus, stormed into Pelosi’s office to let her know that such a deal would mean losing  "somewhere between 40 and 55" pro-choice votes. That number dwarfs Stupak’s supposed 11 anti-choice pols that he threatened would join him in voting "no." We need to build the power of our numbers, get coordinated, and keep fighting for the issues that affect us as women.

The health care bill, as Obama himself has said, is not perfect, but merely a step in the right direction. The positive changes for women as a result of this bill are very important, even as we lost the abortion fight. Now we need to take it and expand upon it. Now is not the time to disassociate ourselves from the party. Now is just the time to become even more involved and entwined with Democrats so that our voices are not just listened to, but actually taken into serious consideration in decision making. The Democrats have a lot of power, and it’s our job to make sure they use it to promote equality for the women of this country. -Bryce Covert

Bryce Covert is a journalist and blogger who writes on feminism, politics and the energy industry. She has a B.A. in literature from Brown University and you can find her at www.brycecovert.com and www.twitter.com/brycecovert.