What does health care reform mean for women? Slate's health series on their new women's site, Double X, digs into this subject in their guide for women to proposed health care reform. Read about just a few of the issues involved in the debate:

Abortion Access: The health reform bills in front of Congress do not include lists of medical procedures that insurance companies must cover. None of the legislation even mentions the word "abortion." If reform passes, an independent council of medical experts, led by the surgeon general, will advise Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on what basic services private and public insurance plans must cover. The much-feared "abortion on-demand" is unlikely to make the cut. Not only is the issue politically combustible, but most existing private plans cover abortion only in cases of risks to the mother's health or severe developmental disabilities in the fetus.

Maternity Care: If the White House and Congress really want to "bend the cost curve" of American health care so that it doesn't bankrupt us, maternity care would be a good place to start. For women, childbirth is the number one cause of hospitalization, and Caesarean sections are the most common surgery. In part because of our staggering C-section rate--almost a third of all births now use the procedure--the United States is paying far more for childbirth than are other developed nations. We also spend more because women routinely give birth in the hospital attended to by a doctor, while in other Western nations, pregnancies without complications typically end at a birthing center staffed by registered nurses and midwives.