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Relentless. Deceptive. Dangerous.

by | May 5, 2011 | Reproductive Rights

The “war on women” in the House of Representatives rages on.

We’re only four months into the new Congress, and already the House has attempted to defund and repeal health care reform; defund Planned Parenthood; and eliminate the Title X family planning program that provides comprehensive preventive health care services to millions of low-income women. The majority in the House was even willing to shut down the federal government in order to get their way.

They are relentless – and they are just getting started.

Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3, deceptively called the ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. This callous bill threatens women’s health by eliminating insurance coverage for abortion care for millions of women. It would permanently deny insurance coverage for abortion care in federally supported health plans and then impose this extreme anti-choice ideology on the private insurance market. The bill would raise taxes and increase costs on – individuals and small businesses with private health plans that cover this basic service.

If women’s lives and the well-being of women and their families mattered to the majority in the House, Members would have rejected this appalling bill – but instead they took one more step down the road that puts women in danger and denies our access to basic reproductive health care.

We must prevent this legislation from becoming law. We can’t let opponents take away our access to the full range of reproductive health services.

The ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’ is deceptive, politically-motivated and dangerous to women. It isn’t just about ensuring that taxpayers don’t pay for insurance coverage of abortion. Unjust federal laws already do that – and for decades these policies have been causing grave harm to low-income women, military women, and other women who face unintended pregnancies and rely on federally supported health insurance plans. H.R. 3 would make those restrictions permanent in U.S. law and extend these harmful restrictions to the private market.

The bottom line: H.R. 3 is about making abortion and other reproductive health care less accessible for all women. Its supporters don’t want abortion to be legal, so they are doing all they can to make it more difficult and costly for women to safely get this legal and routine medical procedure. Restricting insurance coverage of abortion does not reduce the need for abortion; such policies simply force women seeking abortion care to obtain services later in pregnancy when it is more costly and difficult.

Please join us in urging the Senate to reject this dangerous bill.