For health care, for women, for all Americans, we need Coakley
This post was submitted by Jean Qiao, WCF Communications Fellow.
Today Massachusetts voters head to the polls to decide who will replace the legendary Senator Ted Kennedy.
Their votes could also ultimately decide the fate of health care reform. It seems a vote for Martha Coakley would take us one step closer to passing health care reform, whereas a vote for Scott Brown would do the opposite.
Brown has already made it public that he is adamantly against Obama’s healthcare bill, and without his support, health care reform will suffer another round of delays. At a time in which millions of Americans do not have health insurance, many those being women and children, a delay in the passage of this bill is simply not an option.
Electing Coakley is a necessary move, not only for the future of health care reform, but for increasing the representation of women in government. If elected, Coakley will join a mere 17 other women senators in the U.S. Congress and will make her the 39th woman to ever serve as a Senator.
In a country where women make up 51% of the population, having such a large minority of women serving in Congress is simply unacceptable—especially at a time when legislation directly affecting women’s health is being debated. As the Stupak and Nelson amendments demonstrated, the lack of female perspective is severely damaging to the legislation affecting millions of lives.
If the DCCC had a female Chair, do you think she would be urging Bart Stupak to run for re-election, as Chris Van Hollen is? Certainly not.
We need a senator who won’t throw women under the bus. We need a senator who will defend the civil rights of all Americans. We need a senator who will move our country forward, not throw it backward. We need Martha Coakley.
The outcome lies in the hands of Massachusetts voters, but their decisions today will impact the entire country for years.
Tags: health care reform, martha coakley, massachusetts senate race, nelson amendment, scott brown, stupak amendment, Ted Kennedy, Women in congress
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