Oh, snap.

When a senator uses a “your mom” line, you know she means business. At the Senate Finance Committee debate on maternity care in health reform last Friday, Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow made the passionate argument that it should be mandatory for insurance providers to give basic maternity care coverage.

This is not a radical concept; pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young women, and proper maternity care can help curtail those statistics. Of course, some might argue—men in particular—that they’re not going to get pregnant, so why have the “unnecessary” coverage added to your premium?

That’s what Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl (doesn’t that look like a pop star name to you?) said on Friday. “I don’t need maternity care,” he said, “so requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”

To which Stabenow came back with her now-famous your-mom line: “I think your mom probably did.”

Go Debbie! Thanks for reminding the world that every person’s existence boils down to their own mother’s maternity experience, and had Kyl’s mother not had proper care, he may not have been alive today—so he might want to, I don’t know, be grateful for it.

Not to mention, Senator Kyl, when you open that door, you risk the chance of having it slam back in your face as women make the argument that we don’t need Viagra, prostate care, testicular cancer care, and a plethora of male needs and conditions.

As MomsRising.org said, “Thank goodness that we have some moms looking out for our interests in Congress.” I had no idea that most health care plans for individuals do not offer maternity care coverage, and think it’s absolutely outrageous.

You can send a thank-you letter to Senator Stabenow from their website. Be sure to encourage her to keep up the good fight!

But Stabenow can’t do it all alone. It’s up to us to continue to fight for maternity rights as well as basic health care for our families. Given how much more care every developed nation aside from the United States—and some Lesser Developed Nations, actually—gives to their citizens as a basic human right, you would think that people in our country would be knocking down their Congress people’s doors demanding the same coverage.

The only reason I think we’re not is that we simply don’t know—or don’t understand that health care is a human right recognized by the United Nations. Mothers—and fathers—out there, believe it. When some countries will actually cover all of your medical needs—including respite care for parents with new infants, and even home doctor visits during emergencies—you know that you could have the same in your own if we just worked for it together.