Voters Strongly Support Women's Health Provisions in Health Care Reform

Majority Support Capps Compromise on Abortion

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new poll released today
shows strong voter support for women's health provisions included in health
care reform packages currently moving though the U.S. Congress. Highlights of
the poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted by The Mellman Group for the Moving
Forward initiative of the Women Donors Network and the Communications
Consortium Media Center, show:

SUPPORT FOR REQUIRING MATERNITY COVERAGE IS NEARLY UNIVERSAL.
The vast majority (86%) of Americans believe that insurance companies should
be required to cover maternity care, while just 10% oppose such requirements.

ALLOWING INSURANCE COMPANIES TO CONTRACT PREVENTIVE CARE AND SCREENINGS TO
COMMUNITY PROVIDERS, INCLUDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD, IS UNCONTROVERSIAL.
The vast majority of voters (82%) support this proposal regardless of party
affiliation, region, age, gender and religious attendance.

AMERICAN VOTERS SUPPORT EFFORTS TO KEEP HEALTH CARE REFORM ABORTION-NEUTRAL.
A majority (52%) of voters support the "Capps compromise" which would prohibit
federal dollars, including partial subsidies, from being used to pay for
abortions, although abortions could be paid for using private funds generated
by patients' premiums. Just 39% oppose this language. This language garners
more support from anti-abortion voters (64%) than pro-abortion rights voters
(47%). A majority of Catholic voters (58%) also support the language.

"For several years we have been tracking strong support for reproductive and
other health issues," notes Donna Hall, president of the nonprofit,
nonpartisan Women Donors Network based in San Francisco.

"We have found that voters see individual decision-making as the overarching
value on these issues and they want respect, prevention, planning and
personal responsibility to be part of the conversation. This is true whether
it is about family planning, maternity care or other reproductive health
issues, including abortion," added Hall.

"Over the years, opponents of abortion have used the issue to hijack a whole
host of policies by focusing the conversation exclusively on abortion. This is
what has been happening with health care reform. Let's resolve the issue with
the compromise developed by Congresswoman Lois Capps (D?CA) and move forward
with needed reforms," commented Wendy Wolf who leads the Moving Forward
initiative for the Network.

"The Capps Amendment IS a compromise. It keeps the health insurance reform
legislation 'abortion neutral' and neither expands nor contracts current
federal laws, a view supported by a majority of American voters," Wolf added.

For more information on women and health care reform, go to a new website:
www.womenandhealthcarereform.org

SOURCE Communications Consortium Media Center

Kathy Bonk of CCMC, +1-202-326-6767 , cell: +1-202-258-6767, kbonk@ccmc.org;
or Mark Mellman of the The Mellman Group, +1- 202-625-0370