Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Denounces GOP Politicians Further Expanding Discriminatory Anti-Choice Policy in the Midst of Pandemic
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
The Senate bill passed Wednesday evening to continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic includes a deeply troubling expansion of discriminatory and unjust federal restrictions that block women from accessing abortion care. In response, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue released the following statement:
“Let’s be 100% clear what is happening here. Republicans are exploiting a public health crisis to prioritize ideology over science and advance their anti-choice agenda. It is beyond shameful. Their obsession with controlling women continues unabated and draws focus away from the genuine crisis at hand — how to minimize and effectively treat COVID-19.
“When the GOP should be focused on expanding healthcare to every single American in the face of an unprecedented emergency, they instead decide to double-down on their agenda to rob women, especially low-income women and women of color, of the ability to make their own decisions about pregnancy. Once again, they’re playing politics with people’s lives as part of a craven campaign to end reproductive freedom once and for all.”
In addition to the expansion of the Hyde Amendment, anti-choice officials in multiple states over the past few days have attempted to block access to abortion during the COVID-19 crisis. Meanwhile anti-choice groups are collaborating with the Trump administration to urge them to fully exploit this moment to advance their ideological agenda and conservative commentators are rushing to end vital public health measures and risk countless lives in order to prop up the economy and Trump’s re-election chances.
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NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all. For more than 50 years, NARAL has worked 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. Since 1969, NARAL has made history, grown to over 2.5 million members, and met the moments that have defined this fight with action, power and freedom. 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.”