Anti-Women’s Health Legislators Didn’t Waste Any Time in the First Days of Congress
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That didn’t take long. Despite a clear message from the 2012 elections, anti-women’s health lawmakers in the newly sworn-in 113th Congress didn’t waste a minute before introducing a slew of bills designed to restrict a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. It’s a trip back through time to see what they’ve come up with.
Here’s a list of the top five most ridiculous federal bills affecting women’s health and abortion access introduced in the first two days of session!
- H.R. 23: Sanctity of Human Life Act
H.R. 23 is as extreme as it gets. A “personhood” bill to define life as beginning at fertilization, this measure could ban abortion with no exceptions, block access to forms of birth control, and outlaw medical treatments such as in vitro fertilization or the treatment of pregnant women with cancer. Voters in conservative states like Mississippi and Colorado have already rejected this extreme and dangerous measure by overwhelming margins, but that didn’t stop Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) prioritizing this for the first full day of session.
- H.R. 61: Title X defunding bill
Sound familiar? In 2011, Rep. Mike Pence introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. He was even willing to shut down the government over the issue. But ultimately, after a long battle, this dangerous and extreme bill was defeated in the Senate, with a final bipartisan vote 42-58. Mike Pence is no longer in Congress (unfortunately, he will be the new governor of Indiana) but that doesn’t mean his ideas have simply disappeared. Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn introduced a bill to continue what Pence was unable to do: bar Planned Parenthood from participating in federal health programs. Did we suddenly end up back in 2011? So far though, not much appetite for it. It has zero co-sponsors.
- H.R. 217: Title X Defunding Bill
Call it a case of deja-déjà vu. Not to be outdone by her fellow Tennessee representative, Congresswoman Diane Black also introduced a bill designed to block Planned Parenthood from participating in the nation’s Title X family planning program. At least she’s managed to get some co-sponsors.
- H.R. 45: A bill to repeal Obamacare introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann
Remember the saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again”? Well, that seems to be the mantra of anti-women’s health lawmakers in Congress. H.R. 45 is the umpteenth attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (after dozens of failed votes in the last two years) and deny millions of women, young people, and families, access to affordable health care. More than 45 million women have already received preventive care like lifesaving breast cancer screenings and Pap tests with no additional co-pay. Because of Obamacare, insurers will no longer charge women higher premiums simply because of their gender. But apparently these great strides for women’s health mean very little to Rep. Bachmann. Nor apparently, do election results.
- H.R. 132: A bill to repeal Obamacare introduced by Rep. Steve King
Rep. Steve King is as out of touch as they get (remember that time when he said birth control will make us a “dying civilization”?), so it’s really no surprise that he would introduce a bill to repeal a law which has already helped millions of women and families across the country. Like Bachmann’s bill, H.R. 132 is designed to repeal Obamacare and deny millions of people access to affordable health care.
​Don’t fret too much about the latest attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Neither bill has mustered a single co-sponsor as of yet. Perhaps Bachmann and King could co-sponsor each other’s bills?
