Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said the organization takes Speaker Ryan’s threat “very seriously,” along with the looming specter of Vice President-elect Pence, “who has made his entire career out of ending access to reproductive health care, including at Planned Parenthood.”
“We’re going to make sure that the country does not, without a conversation, just turn its back on decades of progress in terms of expanding health care choices to vulnerable women," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said.
"These bills are a solution in search of a problem, a problem that is basically nonexistent," said Rep. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor). "So it seems like it was an ideological response to the issue but one that really has no basis in reality."
Gretchen Whitmer told the story of her own sexual assault when Michigan Republicans moved to ban insurance coverage for abortion care with no exceptions and force people to pre-purchase insurance riders for abortion, a proposal dubbed the “rape insurance” bill.
"It's unfortunate after weeks of lawmakers promising business would be their top priority and social issues wouldn't be on the front burner that within hours of gaveling in we see two anti-abortion bills that seem to be on the fast track,” said Amber Duke, communications director of the ACLU of Kentucky.
Destiny Lopez, co-director of All* Above All, told Rewire it will be critical to expose the Trump administration's agenda to “shame and bully and punish poor women” as the organization mobilizes supporters to pressure members of Congress to stand against anti-choice measures.
While state legislators pushed through 20-week abortion bans and restrictions against fetal-tissue research in some states, there was progress on measures related to contraceptive access in places such as California, Illinois, and Vermont.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and her GOP colleagues indicated that they could wield the appropriations process against the National Institutes of Health to end the use of fetal tissue procured from abortion care for research purposes.
A Democratic congressional aide told Rewire that Republicans are "really playing with fire" if they launch attacks on funding for Planned Parenthood and dismantle the Affordable Care Act, leaving tens of millions without access to care.
