RE: "Blog post stage seven: Abortion"

       On August 3rd, 2017, my classmate Hailey Casey voiced her opinions concerning abortion on her blog Politics around the United States. She is pro-choice, with her reasonings being that it is a woman's choice with what to do with her body. Hailey believes that women are put in situations where they feel it is necessary to abort their unborn child without being questioned, especially when a woman was raped and impregnated.
       I completely agree with Hailey. A woman getting pregnant by their rapist should definitely have the choice to not give birth to that child. Another reason abortion should be legal is for the teens, or the woman who can't support herself let alone the child, or perhaps a woman who just wasn't trying for a baby. Any and all reasons a woman doesn't want or can't bring a child onto this earth should be enough.
       On the other hand, Ashley E. argues against abortion in the comments. She states that "the 14th amendment of the Constitution claims that no person should be 'deprived of life... without due process of law,'" but that's saying that the justice system will decide for a woman that she must birth and care for a child that she does not want. Is that at all Constitutional—forcing a woman to endure the pain of child birth for a life that hasn't yet lived?
       All in all, I absolutely support abortion, with hopes that if I ever need to have one in the far, far future that I would be able to.

Blog Stage 7: Nothing Trumps Obamacare

       In a previous post, "Health Care Bill - Yay or Nay?", I discussed the Senate Republicans' revised health care bill. This attempt to replace Obamacare included drastic cuts made to Medicaid, affecting 70 million people. But more specifically, the Senate Trump-care bill fails those with pre-existing health conditions.

       The Affordable Care Act has a provision requiring insurance companies to set premium rates by "community rating", meaning that people with pre-existing conditions can't be charged more for insurance than those without. However, the Senate version of Trump-care allows states to opt-out of offering plans that cover essential health benefits that people with pre-existing conditions need. In other words, the Senate Trump-care bill gives insurers a backdoor way of discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.

       80% of the people are against this, claiming that it is immoral to deny health insurance to these people, when the other 20% argue that insuring them only drives up the costs for everyone else. This disastrous bill leaves 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions struggling to find insurance plans that cover treatment for even relatively common conditions such as mental health problems or diabetes, in addition to having to scramble together enough to pay off significantly higher medical costs.

       People don't realize that as many as 1 in every 2 Americans have a health issue that qualifies as a pre-existing condition. Even as a 16 year-old, I have 4 of the conditions listed on the right. Where does that leave the rest of America? 1.7 million Americans are cancer patients. 3 kids a day are diagnosed with cancer. 5.4 million live with Alzheimer's. And 24 million will be uninsured if the ACA is repealed. Who will insurance companies serve if not for the sick?

       This bill ends guaranteed protections critical for people with pre-existing conditions and that is not okay. The people need to know who will have their backs when they get ill but by the looks of it, it's not the government. I strongly disagree with any reformations made to Obamacare. It's one thing to make cuts to millions of people's health insurance, but its another to cut it from the sick.