Katy Talento has pushed dubious claims about birth control, including the myth that hormonal contraceptives cause abortions, miscarriages, and decreased fertility.
The findings of an anti-choice House panel that dealt in conspiracies and misinformation could lead to more attacks on Planned Parenthood, fetal tissue research, and abortion care.
Under current Illinois law, pregnant people who receive Medicaid benefits can only obtain abortion care under narrow exceptions such as rape, incest, or when their life is at risk.
“Along with my colleagues Jan Schakowsky, Diana DeGette, and Louise Slaughter, I am looking forward to re-introducing the EACH Woman Act for the 115th Congress,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) told Rewire in an email.
"I think Heitkamp is incredibly important for women’s health," Amy Jacobson of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota said in an interview with Rewire.
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.
