Results tagged “hr358” from Blog for Choice

Happy New Year!

One year ago today, I wrote my first post here on BlogForChoice--and oh, what a year it's been! As we ring in 2012, let's take a look back at the highs and lows of 2011.

Last January, an anti-choice majority took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Led by Speaker John Boehner, these politicians campaigned on a platform of creating jobs and growing our economy. But, once in office, they made attacking a woman's right to choose one of their "highest legislative priorities."

They pushed to redefine rape. (Public outcry forced them to drop this measure.) Then, they voted to approve a bill that manipulates the tax code to advance anti-choice policies and could spur the Internal Revenue Service to audit rape and incest survivors who choose abortion care.

Then, they voted to approve a measure that could make it impossible for a woman to talk with her doctor about medical abortion over the Internet. Then, they voted to allow hospitals to refuse to provide emergency abortion care even when it's necessary to save a woman's life!

You get the picture. Anti-choice politicians pulled a bait and switch on the American people, and spent 2011 waging a War on Women.

Then, there's the other story of 2011: the story of pro-choice Americans who stood up and said, "Enough!"

They said "enough" in Mississippi, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a dangerous and far-reaching "personhood" measure.

They said "enough" to unaffordable birth control (one in three American women struggles with its high cost), and won a no-cost birth-control benefit under the health-reform law.

And it's this pro-choice energy we'll take into 2012, as we work to fight back against the War on Women and elect pro-choice candidates up and down the ticket this November.

In fact, we're already working. In two days, caucus-goers in Iowa will vote in the first contest of the 2012 presidential election. Learn more about the extreme records of the anti-choice Republicans vying to replace President Obama.

Yes, 2012 will be a busy year--but that's a good thing. When it comes to protecting a woman's right to make private medical decisions with her doctor, there's never a day off.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy 2012!

Paid for by NARAL Pro-Choice America, www.ProChoiceAmerica.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Last night, at the final Republican presidential debate of 2011, former Gov. Mitt Romney fielded a question about how he flip-flopped on the issue of choice.

Romney has answered the question about his flip-flop on many occasions; now, he needs to articulate why he has endorsed multiple extreme efforts to allow politicians to interfere in a woman's personal, private decisions.

So, here are three different $10,000 questions for the governor:

• In October, you told Gov. Huckabee that you "absolutely" supported a state constitutional amendment to define life at conception, similar to Initiative 26, Mississippi's failed "personhood" measure.

  Such a measure would ban abortion care without exception: even in cases of rape or incest, and even when a woman's life or health is in danger. It could also outlaw in vitro fertilization and some of the most common methods of birth control.

  However, after Mississippi voters overwhelming rejected Initiative 26, your campaign tried to re-explain your endorsement of a "human-life amendment" that would have established the beginning of life at conception.

  Why are you supporting measures that voters in one of the most conservative states in the Union found too extreme?

• This year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two radical attacks on a woman's right to choose: H.R.3, the "Stupak on Steroids" bill, and H.R.358, the "Let Women Die" bill. Both bills effectively would ban private coverage of abortion care in health-insurance exchanges. (A large majority of private plans currently offer such coverage.) H.R.358 would also allow hospitals to refuse to provide emergency abortion care even when it's necessary to save a woman's life.

  President Obama signaled his intention to veto both bills if they should ever reach his desk.

  As president, would you sign H.R.3, the "Stupak on Steroids" bill, or H.R.358, the "Let Women Die" bill?

• Gov. Romney, last month you proposed eliminating the Title X program, the nation's only dedicated family-planning program. Millions of Americans rely on Title X for birth control, cancer screenings, and other basic health care.

  How do you propose that these Americans get access to birth control, cancer screenings, and other basic health care they need once you've eliminated Title X?

Paid for by NARAL Pro-Choice America, www.ProChoiceAmerica.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.358, the "Let Women Die" bill.

This bill is so extreme that it 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.

With the passage of H.R.358, the House has now held more votes on choice in 2011 than in any year since 2000.

Next stop for the bill: the U.S. Senate.

Anti-choice Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has already introduced the Senate companion to H.R.358, the "Let Women Die" bill. It has the bill number S.877 and it already has more than 30 cosponsors.

We need to make sure this extreme attack on women's freedom and privacy goes no further!

Tell your senators to stop any effort to advance the "Let Women Die" bill.

And we need pro-choice Americans to speak out: while the Senate currently is under pro-choice leadership, only 40 senators can be counted on as reliably pro-choice votes.

Add your voice today, and make sure your senator puts a STOP to the War on Women.

Major news media organizations, including The Associated Press, CBS News, Politico, The Hill, The Washington Independent, and RH RealityCheck, turned to NARAL Pro-Choice America for analysis of how this bill would harm women's health.

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.

Before the House voted on H.R.358, pro-choice Rep. Lois Capps of California proposed adding language that would have fixed the provision that allows hospitals to refuse to provide abortion care when a woman's life is in danger. But the House rejected her proposal by a vote of 173-249! It's no exaggeration to say that any member who voted "no" on this motion voted to allow a hospital to refuse emergency abortion care to a dying woman.

While Speaker John Boehner and the anti-choice House leadership wasted the American people's time with the seventh and eighth outrageous vote to attack women's freedom and privacy this year, many of our pro-choice champions spoke out on the House floor against this bill.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the pro-choice House minority leader, compiled some must-see videos of pro-choice representatives voicing their opposition to H.R.358.

A huge shout-out goes to Reps. Rob Andrews of New Jersey, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Lois Capps and Judy Chu of California, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Joe Crowley of New York, Susan Davis of California, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Ted Deutch of Florida, Donna Edwards of Maryland, Eliot Engel of New York, Janice Hahn of California, Alcee Hastings of Florida, Rush Holt of New Jersey, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Steve Israel of New York, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, Barbara Lee of California, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Doris Matsui of California, Jim McDermott of Washington, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Jim Moran of Virginia, Jerrold Nadler of New York, Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Nancy Pelosi of California, Mike Quigley and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Jackie Speier of California, Betty Sutton of Ohio, Mike Thompson of California, Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts, Nydia Velázquez of New York, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and Henry Waxman and Lynn Woolsey of California.

How did your representative vote on the "Let Women Die" bill? We have the answer.

If your representative voted against this extreme attack, make sure to thank him or her for standing up for women's lives.

If your representative voted for the "Let Women Die" bill, he or she also needs to hear from you. Ask your member of Congress why waging a War on Women is more important than focusing on real priorities creating jobs.

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.

Last fall, politicians campaigned on an agenda of creating jobs and growing our economy. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the anti-choice majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said we needed to "be focused like a laser" on job growth.

So what have these politicians been up to? Let's look at the House's track record thus far in 2011.

In February, the House voted to eliminate all funding for Planned Parenthood, a declaration of war on contraception, cancer screenings, and other basic health care that family-planning centers, such as Planned Parenthood, provide to millions of American women and men each year.

Also in February, the House voted to eliminate all funding for Title X, the nation's only family-planning program.

In April, anti-choice lawmakers exacted as their price for keeping the government open a budget bill that bans Washington, D.C. from using its own, locally raised funds to cover abortion care for low-income women.

In May, the House passed H.R.3, the outrageous "rape-audits" bill. H.R.3 manipulates the tax code to advance anti-choice policies and could spur the IRS to audit rape and incest survivors who choose abortion care.

Later in May, the House voted to dictate whether doctors and medical students can learn about providing abortion care.

And in June, the House passed a measure that could make it impossible for a woman even to talk with her doctor about medical abortion over the Internet or through videoconferencing.

Since January, the House has taken six votes that interfere with a woman's right to make personal, private medical decisions.

How many measures to create jobs has the House passed?

Zero.

Looks like Rep. Cantor's laser is really focused on attacking women's freedom and privacy.

And the anti-choice House leadership is not done yet.

This week, the House is scheduled to vote on H.R.358, the "Let Women Die" bill. H.R.358 would allow hospitals to refuse to provide abortion care even when it's necessary to save a woman's life!

The jobs agenda? Ha! That was so 2010.

Have you had it with these never-ending attacks? Tell your representative to put a STOP to this War on Women.

Friday quiz time!

The employment figures for September came out today, and the numbers show that we've got some work to do. President Obama is traveling around the country urging Congress to take action to create jobs and grow our economy.

What is the anti-choice leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives doing?

If you guessed scheduling a vote on yet another bill that attacks women's freedom and privacy, then you'd be correct!

We've learned that the anti-choice House leadership plans to hold a vote next week on H.R.358, introduced by anti-choice Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.).

You might remember this bill from earlier this year, when it was first introduced with language that would redefine rape and incest.

Public backlash forced sponsors to drop that provision from the bill, but, even without it, H.R.358 would still put women's health in serious jeopardy.

H.R.358 would allow hospitals to refuse to provide 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.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called the House leadership dangerously out of touch with our nation's priorities:

As President Obama is urging Congress to focus on creating jobs, anti-choice House leaders are promising to move an extreme anti-choice agenda. It is unfathomable that the House will vote on a bill that, among other egregious provisions, would allow a hospital to refuse a woman life-saving, emergency abortion care even if she will die without it. House Speaker John Boehner and other anti-choice politicians do not have a mandate to attack women's freedom and privacy. Lawmakers who vote for this bill will be forced to answer why attacking a woman's right to choose, even in emergency situations where her life is at risk, has apparently become the new jobs agenda.

Why, indeed?

If you're outraged that the House leadership keeps attacking women's health again and again, let your representative know. Tell your member of Congress to STOP the War on Women on the House floor.

Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, Dan Lungren has chosen to back an extreme anti-choice agenda that is an assault on the personal, private decisions of women in California. Lungren, whose priorities are wildly out of touch his district and with California, needs to be held accountable for his support of these outrageous bills.

Instead of fulfilling their campaign promise to focus on jobs and the economy, the anti-choice House leadership instead is moving on an extreme anti-choice agenda. It is unfathomable that a congressional committee would move a bill that, among other egregious provisions, would allow a hospital to refuse a woman abortion care even if her life depended on it. More and more, the American people are waking up to the reality that some politicians in the House are willing to let women die, as long as it advances their ideological agenda.

Politicians who campaigned on the promise of focusing on jobs and the economy need to be held accountable if, at the first possible opportunity, they join with John Boehner to launch a full-fledged war on contraception. It is the height of hypocrisy for anti-choice politicians to seek to abolish a program that helps prevent unintended pregnancy and thus reduce the need for abortion.  How many jobs will be generated by eliminating women's access to birth control?

Anti-choice politicians have gone from redefining rape to denying abortion care to women who will die without it. When it comes to attacking women's freedom and privacy, these politicians know no bounds. This debate is just getting started. Any member of Congress who has signed his or her name to this agenda must be held accountable for such extreme attacks against women's reproductive-health services.