"No Thanks, Bernie: Virginia Abortion Rights Advocates Know Better" (Title)

[Demsrule86]

Last edited Thu Apr 27, 2017, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)

I have referenced the Virginia Governor's race in several of my posts. It seems not many here are not familiar with this important (governors) Democratic primary. This is a crucial race and we need to keep Virginia in the Democratic fold:particularly when the census is around the corner...gerrymandering Virginia would be a certainty if the Republican wins Virginia's governorship...so why did Perriello a flawed candidate with an anti-choice past decide to run in a race that a NARAL endorsed candidate pretty much had in the bag? Why risk losing the seat? Also, why was Perriello endorsed in the primary by Sen. Sanders (who held a rally for him) and Elizabeth Warren? I can understand holding your nose and voting for the Democrat during an election but I do not understand endorsing an anti-choice candidate in a primary. As far as I am concerned Perriello came close to stopping the ACA and threw all women under the anti-choice bus with the Stupak amendment...details provide below. This is a long article but worth the read...I have excepted some of what I consider important.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/04/07/no-thanks-bernie-virginia-abortion-rights-advocates-know-better/

"...In my personal capacity as an abortion rights activist and the mother of a young daughter in Virginia, I am proud to witness Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA)’s continuous unwavering support for reproductive freedoms as he campaigns for the governor’s mansion. Northam has a long history of championing reproductive rights. As a state senator from Norfolk, he was the first to reference “transvaginal” ultrasound in the General Assembly in 2012, framing that ultimately forced then-Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) to sign a watered-down version of the law.
From day one, Northam has been part of the successful team that delivered upon Gov. McAuliffe’s promise to roll back the abortion clinic shutdown restrictions designed to force abortion clinics to close...

...As far as reproductive rights are concerned, the lieutenant governor couldn’t be more different than Tom Perriello, who voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the Affordable Care Act—one of the worst moments in the history of the Democratic Party’s sell-outs on reproductive rights—and has since offered “regret” for that vote, saying he’s “always been pro-choice and a supporter of Roe v. Wade.” Problem is, he’s made contradicting statements. And he’s led a scorched-earth strategy with abortion rights advocates on the ground, who look at his troubling record and ask the legitimate, necessary questions about why women in Virginia should trust a man who betrayed not just them, but women across the nation.

[Perriello voted for the Stupak amendment]

"...The Stupak amendment was an anti-abortion, poison-pill addition to the Affordable Care Act that nearly prevented health-care reform from passing. In a breathtaking act of masculine ego, former Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and 63 other Democrats, including then-congressman Perriello, threatened to block a vote on Obamacare unless people who received subsidies were prevented from using their own private dollars to purchase plans including coverage for abortion care. This was not a continuation of the Hyde Amendment that bans federal funding for abortion, as suggested by Perriello at a campaign speech for Arlington Young Democrats three weeks ago, but rather a massive departure from insurance industry norms.

When Stupak’s amendment was introduced, the vast majority of employer-based insurance plans—87 percent—covered abortion care, and the net effect of that amendment would have been to, in the words of a George Washington University study at the time, “move the entire health benefits industry away from its current inclusive coverage norms [regarding abortion] and toward a new norm of exclusion …. Thus, if the result of national health reform is to move millions of women into a market that operates subject to the exclusion, then it is fair to predict that the entire market for coverage ultimately will be affected as a product tipping point is reached.”

While the Stupak amendment failed to make its way into the bill that ultimately passed, it did pave the way for deep gashes to abortion coverage within the Affordable Care Act, and an insulting executive order signed by President Obama affirming the Hyde Amendment in the insurance market—again, a departure from what had been inclusive coverage norms for abortion coverage in the private insurance market."