steinem.jpg
Gloria Steinem addresses the crowd during the Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio Centennial Celebration May 16 in Columbus. (Photo: Associated Press)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - American politicians' approach to healthcare positions the United States behind the country's contemporaries, said activist Gloria Steinem.
"The problem is the state of mind of political leaders who are way behind public opinion in this country and way behind every other advanced democracy in the world," Steinem, who for decades has championed women's rights, said during an interview with The Plain Dealer.
Steinem served as the guest speaker Wednesday for Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio's centennial celebration at the Renaissance Cleveland, which attracted a crowd of more than 1,000 people.
"The idea that reproductive freedom or the right to make reproductive decisions is not a normal part of healthcare is the fundamental problem," Steinem said.
President Donald Trump's American Health Care Act could make pregnancy a pre-existing condition and rule out access to contraception and abortion based on the whim of an employer or politician, she said.
Similarly, the repeal of the former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act would give women less access to healthcare and increase the cost of reproductive care, said Iris Harvey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
Harvey called the AHCA "the worst piece of legislation for women in a generation," a claim met by cheers from the audience.
"A lot of things that were built into the Affordable Care Act, the breast exam, STD testing, much of that could be interrupted with the AHCA. Women would have less access to healthcare; it would be more expensive and more prohibitive." Harvey said. "To a large extent, the decisions that are being made are political decisions by politicians, who are primarily men."
The AHCA, too, includes language to defund Planned Parenthood for a year, meaning that the organization would not receive reimbursements from the federal government for providing services to people using Medicaid.
That means women would not be able to use Medicaid to access health services at one of Planned Parenthood's 20 centers in Ohio, Harvey said.
Rhiannon Childs of Columbus has relied on Planned Parenthood twice in her life: once when she was a single mother of two without insurance and once when her OBGYN moved out of her insurance network.
"I don't understand why it's a matter of politics. To me, it's a human right," said Childs, who is a community healthcare liaison for Ohio Health, a nonprofit healthcare system in Central Ohio.
Despite healthcare reform at the federal level, Steinem does not believe the country has compromised all of the progress made on women's rights. If anything, she sees unprecedented support of reproductive rights by men and a greater understanding of the intersectionality of issues of sexism, racism and environmentalism, as evidenced by the Women's March.
"I was greatly heartened by the numbers, by the movement, by the issues, by the staying power," Steinem said.
She sees the political action being taken on healthcare partially as the product of a racial backlash to the election of former President Obama and to the insecurity of some Americans who depend on a racial hierarchy. She suggested that a failed electoral college, low voter turnout and a focus on Washington, D.C., instead of on state legislators put people in power who don't represent the majority of Americans.
"What used to be a minority rebellion or vision I'd say is now a majority belief. Yes, we now have the majority but a backlash is in elected power in Washington at the moment," Steinem said.
To support women's rights in the current political landscape, people should do "everything," Steinem quipped.
"We need to stop using the word "should" and just do whatever we can: Use our vote power, our dollar power, our voice power," she said.