Where do we go from here?

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, women’s groups were some of the most influential and active in getting Obama elected. Women’s groups in general, especially National Partnership, Planned Parenthood, NOW, etc etc participated in every conceivable way, from fund raising to grass-roots door to door slugging it out to get the “Change”-man elected. We didn’t do that just so he could “Change” his mind and then quickly “Change” the subject.

Loyal Democrats and members of National Partnership were told, once it became clear that the Public Option (the at-one-time “realistic” alternative to Single Payer) was not going to be included and that any help for women’s basic right to health care and family planning were also not going to be included, just to hang on. Change would be forthcoming.

We were told that we just needed to support this bill, as flawed as it was, and if we did that, action was right around the corner to improve the bill and make it better for all.

I know I’m not making any rules here, but it seems one alternative that should be examined is to get some accountability from the Blue Dogs and from the 72 legislators who originally signed a pledge not to vote for any bill that did not include a Public Option. These people took in hundreds of thousands of dollars based on that pledge and then they broke that pledge.

But that’s just my suggestion.

What concrete actions is National Partnership planning to take to make health care in this country an equal right for all?