UAW health plans should cover abortion
Ann Arbor News
Sunday, September 7, 2003
Letter-to-the-Editor
UAW health plans should cover abortionThe United Auto Workers are requesting that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group pay for elective and voluntary abortions for female workers. Including this basic health care provision for women is long overdue, the only critical medical procedure for which any worker has been deprived coverage. Pregnancy impacts a woman's entire physical, social, political and workplace/economic prospects. Whole families are at risk when a woman cannot afford to appropriately manage her own reproductive health. When I was in practice, I encountered women workers who could not get medical coverage because of the company's policy, creating problems and stresses. Coverage of abortion services contributes to women's overall health, and the well-being of women workers directly affects workforce productivity. Women have been penalized by corporate resistance, as well as being hostage to fundamentalist opponents of abortion who oppose all efforts supporting women's access to this health option. I hope that the UAW and the companies will achieve inclusion of this landmark initiative in the new contracts. Angelos G. Constantinides, Ann Arbor
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