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Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) joined her Pro-Choice Caucus colleagues in introducing a House resolution to combat Republican attacks on women’s reproductive freedoms. The resolution, introduced by Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee, co-Chairs of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, as well as Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus Abortion Rights & Access Task Force, comes amid of a slew of anti-choice bills the House GOP has brought to the floor outside of regular order. 

“There are no ‘red’ or ‘blue’ states when it comes to protecting women’s reproductive rights – in every state in America, a majority of people support abortion access. Even so, this narrow Republican majority is bringing not one, not two, but at least three measures to the floor attacking our reproductive rights. These anti-choice bills are completely out of touch with the message voters sent at the ballot box last fall, and another example of Speaker McCarthy bending to the will of an extremist wing of his caucus,” said Congresswoman Pingree.

Specifically, the resolution:

1. Condemns all acts of political violence;
2. Condemns attacks on health care facilities, health care personnel, and patients;
3. Affirms that all people have the freedom to access reproductive health care services and medical advice without fear of violence, intimidation, or harassment; and
4. Calls upon the Biden administration to use all appropriate authorities to uphold public safety, to protect health care facilities, and safeguard health care personnel and patients.

A copy of the resolution is available here.

On Wednesday, House Republicans passed H.R. 26 and H. Con. Res. 3 and are expected to take up H.R. 7 this week.

• H.R. 26: This bill puts new criminal penalties and reporting requirements on health care providers who fail to provide specific standards of care to a child born alive after an attempted abortion. Doctors are already required to provide appropriate medical care, and this bill is wrong and irresponsible for suggesting otherwise. 

• H. Con. Res. 3: This resolution condemns recent attacks on anti-choice facilities and groups only, failing to recognize countless threats and acts of violence toward reproductive health care facilities, personnel, and patients.

• H.R. 7: This bill codifies the Hyde Amendment, a racist and discriminatory policy which prohibits all taxpayer funding for abortion care and is particularly harmful to poor women and women of color.

Pingree is a longtime champion of reproductive freedom and has cosponsored and helped pass several bills in the House to protect those freedoms. Learn more about Pingree’s work to protect abortion access here.  

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