Congressional Pro-Choice Leaders Urge Biden to Eliminate Abortion Coverage Restrictions from Fiscal Year 2022 Budget
Washington, D.C. – The Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus – led by U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee (CA-13) and Diana DeGette (CO-01) – along with the Democratic Women’s Caucus leaders, House Appropriations Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, and pro-choice Senators, sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging the removal of abortion coverage restrictions from the Fiscal Year 2022 budget.
In the letter, the lawmakers said that reversing the Trump administration’s policies undermining access to sexual and reproductive health care, both domestically and globally, must be a top priority for the Biden Administration, but “simply reverting to where things were in 2016 is not enough.” They called on the president to eliminate the Hyde Amendment, the Weldon Amendment, the Helms Amendment, and other similar abortion coverage restrictions from the Fiscal Year 2022 budget.
“The pandemic yet again showed the long-standing structural racism and inequities in our health care system, with communities of color, particularly those in the Black, Latinx, and Pacific Islander communities, and Indigenous people facing high rates of infection and death from COVID-19,” the lawmakers wrote. “We are ready to work with the Biden Administration to undo harmful abortion access policies that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The letter was also signed by: Representatives Katherine Clark (MA-05), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Lois Frankel (FL-21), Jackie Speier (CA-14), Brenda L. Lawrence (MI-14), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Judy Chu (CA-27), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Norma J. Torres (CA-35), Theodore E. Deutch (FL-22), and Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH).
To read the full text of the letter, click here.