House Passes Seventh Anti-Choice Measure This Year

The U.S. House of Representatives just voted 251 to 172 to pass H.R.358, the "Let Women Die" bill.

H.R.358 would allow hospitals to refuse to provide emergency abortion care even when it's necessary to save a woman's life!

And, it effectively would ban abortion coverage in state health-insurance exchanges, denying this coverage to millions of women.

The House has now voted seven times this year to take away a woman's ability to make private medical decisions with her doctor.

Seven times!

Don't they know that there's a jobs crisis going on?

While the American people are wondering what their elected representatives are doing to create jobs, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the anti-choice House leadership are devoting their time to waging a War on Women.

How does this create jobs?

I'll give you a hint: it doesn't.

It does show that Speaker Boehner and his anti-choice cohorts are mind-bogglingly out of touch with the American people's values and priorities.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said today's vote was yet another reminder of how playing politics with women's health and privacy is more of a priority for Speaker Boehner than the nation's real, pressing challenges:

Americans are facing real challenges, yet House Speaker John Boehner is ignoring the public's call for Congress to focus on jobs. Instead, he is coming up with new ways to give politicians more control over our personal, private decisions. The House's attacks on women's freedom and privacy are out of touch with our nation's values and priorities.

The good news is that 172 of our allies stood strong, and the Obama administration issued a strongly worded statement opposing H.R.358.

The bad news is that Speaker Boehner and the anti-choice House leadership have given no indication that they're going to stop their attacks on women's freedom and privacy. In fact, waging a War on Women seems to be a much higher priority for them than, say, creating jobs.

But here's the best news: there's an election coming up in 2012. And politicians who ignore the American people's priorities are going to have a pretty tough time explaining that to their constituents.