CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I work for a reproductive justice organization. That means that for almost 10 years, I've been advocating for West Virginia families to improve education on reproductive decisions, increase access to affordable birth control, and protect personal decision-making, including decisions about whether or when to have a child. This means that we at WV FREE support access to abortion care because it's what women sometimes need as part of their basic health care.

We want health reform legislation to succeed. We support and applaud efforts of our allies and policymakers in making tremendous strides toward a comprehensive health plan that will help millions of people across this country and in our state get the care they need.

So I am disappointed that the badly needed legislation to expand health-care coverage has turned a woman's health care into what seems like a game of political football.

We may not all feel the same way about abortion, but the debate over health reform shouldn't become a forum to take away a woman's decision-making. Anti-choice politicians in Washington have once again resorted to interference in a woman's most personal, private medical decisions. Our opponents didn't have the votes to ban abortion completely, so instead they are penalizing women financially.

Though we are strongly opposed to it, our health-care system already prohibits federal funding of insurance coverage of abortion through the Hyde Amendment, a severely restrictive law that has been in effect for more than three decades. A recent amendment to the U.S. House of Representatives health reform bill, known as the Stupak Amendment, threatens to go much further by taking away private health insurance benefits that women currently have by placing unprecedented restrictions on a woman's ability to purchase private health insurance coverage for abortion.

Women should not be punished because we are reproductive creatures. No woman should be left with insurance that doesn't cover the full spectrum of reproductive health care. Whether she is facing an unintended pregnancy or a fetal anomaly in a very wanted pregnancy -- women have abortions for many different reasons, and each person's circumstance is different. No woman should have to delay an abortion because she can't afford it. No woman should face financial ruin because our insurance system has turned its back on her reproductive health needs. 

Health-care reform should help a woman keep coverage she already has. Let's stick to our vision for health reform that expands access to health care and includes a woman's reproductive health care. Let's work in partnership and remain firm in our commitment that if a woman gets pregnant, she has the ability to make the best decision for herself and her family. 

Pomponio is executive director of WV FREE, the state's leading reproductive justice organization.