Reps. Norm Dicks and Adam Smith stood up for women’s health and reproductive rights by voting against H.R. 358.
H.R. 358 is another attempt by House Republicans to revive the failed Stupak amendment. It eliminates the existing protections women already have when seeking care in emergency circumstances. Basically, it would allow a hospital to deny life-saving abortion care to a woman, even if a doctor deems that care necessary.
The claim is this that H.R. 358 is protecting medical workers, but the truth is that it undermines women’s access to health care and endangers their lives. It would also take comprehensive health care coverage away from women and create loopholes that states and insurance companies could exploit to undermine the new requirement that insurance companies provide birth control with no co-pays.
I am tired of House Republican leaders pushing for a vote on legislation that restricts access to health care. We are in a recession! Congress needs to focus on fixing the economy and stop wasting time on these out-of-the-mainstream bills.