ICYMI: Republicans Pass Anti-Choice Bill During Sukkot

Ariela Fleisig — October 17, 2011 – 2:51 pm | Congress | Domestic Policy | Reproductive Rights | Republicans | Women's Issues Comments (1) Add a comment

While many of their Jewish constituents abstained from work Thursday in observance of the Sukkot holiday, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed yet another bill limiting a woman’s reproductive freedom.

Known as the Protect Life Act, the bill allows any health care provider receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds to refuse any woman an abortion - even if her life is in danger. Many American Jews, who believe that every woman should be given the right to emergency health care - were unable to voice their concerns due to their observance.

According to The New York Times’ Jennifer Steinhauer:

But on Thursday the chamber pivoted back to another topic that has been the subject of various pieces of legislation this year: how to reduce access to abortions though federal health insurance programs. ...The House has brought a few bills aimed at limiting abortion access to the floor since Republicans took control in January.

The bill presented Thursday also says that the federal government may not discriminate against health care providers that refuse to provide abortions by refusing them federal funds under the health care law.

In a statement, the White House said:

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 358 because… the legislation intrudes on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care and unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices that women and their families have today.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said prior to the vote:

When the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor, and health care providers do not have to intervene… It’s just appalling. This is a health issue, and it falls right in there with a lot of other initiatives that they had coming up on the floor about clean air, clean water, mercury—you name it…. I can’t even describe to you the logic of what it is that they are doing… I just know that you’ll see a large number of women on the floor today fighting for women’s health issues as well as to point out how savage this is about withholding care for a woman because of this legislation.

Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) related on the House floor memories of her own emergency procedure:

I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding… If I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to do is misogynist.

Click here to read Steinhauer’s full article.

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