Donald Trump and Republicans are nothing if not consistently hostile toward women.
Already this year, right-wing Republicans in Congress and state legislatures have introduced extreme bills that would punish abortion providers, defund Planned Parenthood and roll back decades of women’s rights progress.
The Women’s Health Protection Act would put a stop to their attacks. This model legislation would directly challenge the fringe anti-choice policies Republicans are using to undermine women’s health and rights.
From fetal burial bills and unconstitutional abortion bans to laws that would block safe abortion methods and disqualify Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid and Title X funds, the Republican war on women is raging on.1
The Trump-Pence regime is trying to legalize discrimination in health care on the basis of religion or morality to block access and strip away the rights of women and LGBTQ people.2
Its latest attack on Title X, the nation’s program for affordable reproductive health care, could completely destroy it.3
Right-wing Sen. Ben Sasse recently led the latest anti-women attack at the federal level by introducing legislation that would codify abortion as tantamount to infanticide. The Senate just blocked this radical anti-women policy.4
t’s terrifying that Congress even considered it.
At the state level, anti-choice zealots are preparing for a final blow to block abortion nationwide. With two Trump appointees on the Supreme Court – one a known sexual predator and both anti-choice extremists – a decision to uphold a number of anti-choice state laws the court is scheduled to review could weaken or even strip away a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Republican state lawmakers are advancing policies that would ban abortion in the event that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Oklahoma, Arizona and Michigan already have these extreme laws on the books. Tennessee and Arkansas are following their lead.5
With right-wing Republicans escalating their attacks, it’s time for Democrats in the House of Representatives to go on the offensive and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. While this bill has no chance of becoming law under this administration, it’s important that we build momentum and support for it now.
This policy would bar federal and state lawmakers from advancing laws that would:6
- Impose medically unnecessary regulations on health care facilities that offer abortion
- Restrict women’s ability to safely access medication abortion
- Require women seeking abortion to undergo state-mandated ultrasounds and wait periods
- Ban abortion
We cannot sit by while Trump and Republicans institutionalize misogyny and advance laws purposely intended to incite the radical anti-choice wing of their party at the expense of women’s rights. Add your name now to demand that the House of Represenatives pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.
Thanks for speaking out to protect women’s health and rights.
References:
- Guttmacher Institute, “An Overview of Abortion Laws,” Feb. 1, 2019.
- Robert Pear and Jeremy W. Peters, “Trump Gives Health Workers New Religious Liberty Protections,” The New York Times, Jan. 18, 2018.
- Anna North, “The domestic gag rule on abortion, explained,” Vox, May 15, 2018.
- Mike DeBonis and Felicia Sonmez, “Senate blocks bill on medical care for children born alive after attempted abortion,” The Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2019.
- Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens, “With Abortion in Spotlight, States Seek to Pass New Laws,” The New York Times, Feb. 8, 2019.
- Acr For Women, “Women’s Health Protection Act,” accessed Feb. 21, 2019.