Abort Theocracy
A SecularWoman.ORG Project
Atheist Women Speak: Kim
Atheist Women Speak:
Kim
Secular Woman Signs Letter to Congress Regarding Abortion Access
May 8, 2013
| The Honorable Barbara Mikulski Chairwoman Senate Committee on Appropriations S-128 The Capitol Washington, D.C. 20510 |
The Honorable Richard Shelby Ranking Member Senate Committee on Appropriations S-146A The Capitol Washington, D.C. 20510 |
| Dear Chairwoman Mikulski and Ranking Member Shelby:As organizations committed to advancing women’s reproductive health, rights, and justice, we strongly urge you to reject policy riders in the Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations process that restrict women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
All women should have access to and coverage of abortion, regardless of their ability to pay or source of insurance. Since the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, however, the appropriations process has been used as a vehicle to systematically restrict women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health care. In recent years, there have been multiple attempts to use the appropriations process to incrementally chip away at women’s health. These measures create unjust obstacles to care for millions of women, including women of color, low-income women, immigrants, and rural women, severely restricting their ability to make the best health care decisions for themselves and their families. When anti-women’s health policies are attached to must-pass appropriations legislation, members of Congress are forced to choose between shutting down the government and putting women’s health in jeopardy. As a coalition of organizations that care about the health and economic security of women and their families, we strongly urge you to oppose efforts to attack women’s health through the appropriations process, including policy riders that restrict funding for abortion coverage and care for: (i) Medicaid-eligible women and Medicare and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries; (ii) federal employees and their dependents; (iii) Peace Corps volunteers; (iv) Native American women; (v) women in federal prisons and detention centers, including those detained for immigration purposes; and (vi) local District of Columbia funds for low-income women. We commend the members of Congress who have stood up against these attacks on women and urge all members of Congress to make the health and economic security of our nation a priority by opposing all attempts to limit access to the comprehensive health care women and their families need to stay healthy and contribute to our nation’s economy. We hope that Congress will ultimately lift all abortion coverage restrictions, which harm women’s health and erect unnecessary and unfair barriers to comprehensive reproductive health care, in forthcoming appropriations bills. Sincerely, Abortion Care Network |