Moreover, Domenici and Wellstone have joined together once again to introduce legislation, much anticipated within the mental health community, aimed at strengthening their 1996 act. The drive toward full mental health parity in the insurance coverage context is historic because it highlights an increased understanding and acceptance of mental illness. This may be attributed in large part to recent breakthroughs in brain research that point increasingly to the physical origin of many mental disorders. All body systems, including the brain, are based on the same biological process, which we are now interpreting. This distinction between systems based on the terms 'physical' and 'mental' is meaningless.
Science is a long way ahead of policymakers in terms of understanding mental illness.
Under Roe v. Wade, women have a constitutional right to choose an abortion, but after the fetus reaches viability, states may restrict or even prohibit abortion except when necessary to protect a woman's life or health. All these factors may relate to health. Daschle's proposal, which was offered but rejected in May 1997 as an amendment to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, would have excluded the possibility of a postviability abortion for any mental health condition, no matter how severe. Durbin is expected to reintroduce his bill again within the coming months. Whether or not this is true, recent actions beg the question of why providing equitable treatment for people with mental illness is gaining currency in virtually every public policy context except abortion, where it is fast losing ground.