Congresswoman Chellie Pingree had harsh words for an anti abortion bill up for a vote in the U.S. House today, on the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
"Frankly, this is another example of how Republicans in Congress just don't understand women's lives," Pingree said. "Over and over again they have tried to restrict abortion, drive women's health clinics out of business, and generally get in the way of what should be a private conversation between a woman and her doctor."
The House had been set to take up a bill that would have banned all abortions after twenty weeks, but Republicans pulled it at the last minute after even their own members came out against provisions in the bill that would ban abortions for some victims of rape. Instead, Republican leaders are putting the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" up for a vote. But Pingree says the title of the bill is intentionally misleading.
"The name of that bill is nonsense," Pingree said. "There are already laws preventing taxpayer funding of abortion. What this bill really does is block abortion coverage for women in the military; women who happen to live in Washington, DC; and low income women. And it even penalizes small businesses that offer comprehensive health coverage to female employees. It's just outrageous."
Pingree was harshly critical of the fact that Republican leaders insist on voting on an anti-abortion bill on the 42d anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
"It's an outrageous attack on all the work we've done to protect women's reproductive health. We've made a lot of progress in the last four decades and instead of trying to move us backwards we should be tackling issues that matter to working Americans like shrinking wages or the rising cost ofcollege and health care, not an ideologically divisive issue like this anti-abortion bill.
