Sen. Maggie Hassan, the former Democratic governor of New Hampshire, grilled Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) about whether an employer “should be able to fire a woman because she uses birth control.”
Advocates at the New York-based public policy organization, the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH), said the public should not “rely solely on federal protections to ensure residents’ basic rights."
“Unfortunately for Republicans, banning abortion nationwide, which this bill effectively would do, is unconstitutional thanks to Roe v. Wade,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said. “The bill also exposes Republicans’ clear lack of understanding of science and how the human body actually works.”
As one of the most anti-choice administrations in U.S. history is set to take office this week, just two days before we mark the 1973 decriminalization of abortion through Roe v. Wade, pro-choice activists must make a concerted effort to create space for all those who need and have had an abortion, including those who felt regret.
“Part of what Carafem wanted to do was to speak openly and unapologetically about abortion in the same way that other providers speak about their services,” said Melissa Grant, Carafem's vice president of health-care services. “This feels like a First Amendment issue .... It feels wrong.”
"If there are women in these highly restrictive states who want abortions but can't get them because there aren't any clinics that they can get to, and that's why abortion's going down, that's not a good thing," said Rachel Jones, senior research associate at Guttmacher and lead author of the study.
If Congress prohibits Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding, it will not only strip Medicaid enrollees of their preferred provider, but also will leave many enrollees with nowhere else to receive quality reproductive and sexual health services.
“We do not accept any federal, state or local rollbacks, cuts or restrictions on our ability to access quality reproductive healthcare services, birth control, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, or medically accurate sexuality education,” the Women’s March on Washington platform says.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced copycat legislation that failed last year in Ohio. King's anti-choice bill would amount to a total ban on abortion care nationwide.
