DeGette, Lee and Lowey Condemn Trump Administration’s Post-Election Attacks on Women’s Health
Washington, DC – Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chairs Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), along with Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY), condemned the Trump Administration’s latest attempts to push through anti-choice actions that will further limit women’s access to abortion and birth control.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized two rules that would allow employers to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a rule that would result in burdensome regulations designed to push abortion coverage out of reach for at least 1.3 million women.
“One day after voters resoundingly showed their support for women and protecting access to health care, this latest attack by the Trump administration is particularly tone-deaf and vindictive,” the lawmakers said. “Women have made it clear that they will not stand for shameless efforts to roll back their hard-fought and constitutionally-protected reproductive rights. In the 116th Congress, the Democratic majority will work to block this extreme, ideological, and overwhelmingly unpopular agenda.”
The changes to health care coverage for birth control and abortion coverage will make it more difficult – and, in some cases, impossible – for women to access contraception or make decisions about their own reproductive health.
When these changes were first proposed in October 2017, DeGette, Lowey, former Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chair Louise Slaughter and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi led more than 180 of their colleagues in a letter to Trump administration officials opposing the rules, warning that these changes would restrict access to birth control for millions of women covered under the Affordable Care Act. Federal courts in Pennsylvania and California blocked the interim rules last year, but the Trump administration has continued to work to make them permanent.
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