NARAL Statement on Senate Parliamentarian Removing Dangerous Personhood Language from Tax Bill

After dangerous personhood language was removed by the Senate Parliamentarian from the Senate tax bill for violating the Byrd Rule, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue issued the following statement in response:

“It’s a disgrace to call this a tax bill when it’s really a Trojan Horse for a grab bag of unpopular agenda items that the GOP has failed to pass in other, more legitimate ways. Their plan was always to ram through something to please a fringe base that hasn’t seen a single legislative win from Republicans since they took control of Congress and the White House at the beginning of the year. Their willingness to do so at the expense of working families and women across the country tells us everything we need to know about who they do and don’t serve in our country.

“Using the tax bill to assert an ideological definition of when life begins is so out of bounds that we’re pleased that the Parliamentarian ruled it out of order. That said, they know they cannot achieve this goal of the anti-choice movement in the light of day, since it has failed every time it has been in front of the voters. So, we have every reason to expect they’ll try to do it again, and when they do NARAL members will be ready to fight this again.”

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.”