While the passage of the House health care reform bill brought us one step closer to health reform that could work for women anti-choice Members of Congress dealt a huge blow to women’s reproductive health coverage at the last minute by including the anti-choice Stupak-Pitts amendment in health care legislation. The legislation would end higher premiums based on gender, denials by insurance companies for having had a Cesarean section or suffered domestic abuse under the guise that these were “pre-existing conditions,” and provides other major protections for women, but if the Stupak-Pitts amendment becomes law, it will take away essential coverage for abortion care from women that most insurance plans provide today.

Now, the Senate is starting to consider its health care reform bill. So far, the legislation does not include the harmful Stupak-Pitts language and we need to make sure that it never does. Sign the petition below and tell our leaders — President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Reid, and Speaker Pelosi — to prohibit the discriminatory Stupak-Pitts ban from being part of health care reform legislation. You can read the petition text here.

Speaking out now is crucial — but it is only the first step. Join us in DC on December 2 for a National Day of Action, when the National Women's Law Center and our allies will be taking our message straight to the Hill.