BREAST CANCER: Op-Ed Calls Wilson A ‘Misogynist’ For Vetoing Treatment Bill

      Writing in today's Los Angeles Times, UC-Berkeley professor Ruth Rosen blasts Gov. Pete Wilson's veto of a bill (AB 2592) "that would have paid for the treatment of poor women diagnosed" with breast cancer, a veto that came despite existing state subsidies for mammograms. "In other words," Rosen writes, "we'll screen women, but not treat them. In a state now blessed with a surplus, does it make sense to deprive poor women of treatment for breast cancer? Of course not. It reeks of moral bankruptcy and indecency. ... [I]f we allow poor women to die, we won't have to worry about welfare anymore." She goes on to say that the veto "reveals a misogynistic indifference to poor women that borders on the pathological" and concludes that Wilson's action is "an incredible way to remind the public that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month" (10/7).

What It Would Have Done
      Introduced by Assemblyman Howard Wayne (D-San Diego),AB 2592 would have offered breast cancer treatment services to uninsured and underinsured women with incomes at or below 200% percent of the federal poverty level. According to the California Assembly's digest, the program would have been administered by the Department of Health Services, though the bill required the department to contract the program's operations out to a qualified organization.