FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2017
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Today the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee advanced an extreme plan to ban abortion statewide after 20 weeks of pregnancy and outlaw one of the safest and most common types of abortion care. The legislative proposal was voted out of committee along party lines—with no opportunity for public input on the sweeping proposal.
“This abortion ban is a blatant attack on Pennsylvanians’ access to basic reproductive-health care and seeks to replace a woman’s personal decision making with a politician’s out-of-touch ideology,” said James Owens, states communications director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Republican attempts to smuggle through an abortion ban without the opportunity for public input is a cynical attempt to push their ideological agenda over the objections of Pennsylvania women and families. Regardless of who they pulled the lever for in November, Pennsylvanians didn’t vote for one party to outlaw abortion and make basic reproductive-health care harder to access. Poll after poll shows that 7 in 10 voters support keeping abortion legal and accessible. These repeated Republican attempts to outlaw abortion are clearly not the priorities of hardworking Pennsylvania families.”
“Anti-choice politicians’ obsession with banning abortion reveals their complete and utter contempt for women and disregard for our rights,” Karen Ritter, former Pennsylvania State Representative from Lehigh County. “For far too long, anti-choice politicians have tried to impose their ideology on women and families across Pennsylvania. But the millions of Americans—men and women—who have taken to the streets in the last few weeks show that we will not stand for these attempts to treat women as less-than-equal members of society. If Republicans can’t hear these calls to defend the basic principles of justice and equality, then they will feel the force of our vote at the ballot box.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all Americans. NARAL works to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”
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