Jane Roe would be rolling over in her grave if she weren't still alive

Apparently, I've been sleeping under a rock. Yes, I was paying cursory attention to the health care reform debate, but somehow one of the compromises made by the democrats completely escaped me. The House of Representatives voted to include in the health care reform bill the Stupak Amendment , which restricts coverage of abortions for millions of women, even those covered under private health insurance.

Reporters for the Huffington Post summed it up, "As drafted, the measure denied the use of federal subsidies to purchase abortion coverage in policies sold by private insurers in the new insurance exchange, except in cases of incest, rape or when the life of the mother was in danger.

But abortion foes won far stronger restrictions that would rule out abortion coverage except in those three categories in any government-sold plan. It would also ban abortion coverage in any private plan purchased by consumers receiving federal subsidies."

The Senate voted down a similar amendment in their version of the health bill, but now the bills will be combined and the House and Senate will vote on a combined bill that includes the Stupak Amendment.

Strangely, there are no proposed amendments that placed any limitations on men's health care coverage.

Personally, I'm all for funding medical research that will enable doctors to 1. Remove a fetus from a womb while keeping it alive and 2. Enable men to then carry an implanted fetus to term. Then, conservative legislators who somehow believe all women's bodies belong to them can elect to take on the pregnancies themselves.

Until this happens, though, if we want all women, even those in poverty, to have the right to comprehensive health insurance, we will have to encourage our legislators to vote for justice and equality.