Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Releases 2021 Congressional Record on Reproductive Freedom
For Immediate Release: Thursday, January 20, 2022
Contact: [email protected]
Washington, DC — Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released its annual Congressional Record on Reproductive Freedom. This report documents votes pertaining to reproductive freedom taken by all members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate during the first session of the 117th Congress.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement in response:
“NARAL’s annual Congressional Record on Reproductive Freedom is an important metric to measure our elected leaders’ commitment to our values. We saw notable gains for reproductive freedom in last year’s Congress, including the historic removal of the discriminatory Hyde Amendment from spending bills and the passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act in the House—the first standalone vote in Congress to proactively protect abortion rights. With our fundamental rights under unprecedented attack, it is more important than ever that our leaders in Congress rise up to meet this moment and fight for our freedom to make our own decisions about our lives, families, and futures.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America’s 2021 Congressional Record on Reproductive Freedom comes as the future of legal abortion faces an existential threat. Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, involves Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban and threatens to end the constitutional right to abortion as we know it. Any ruling that upholds Mississippi’s ban will overturn Roe’s core protections.
With the legal right to abortion on the line, lawmakers hostile to reproductive freedom have waged an all-out assault on abortion access. In 2021, more than 100 restrictions on abortion were enacted at the state level. This included Texas’ SB 8, the vigilante-enforced ban on abortion before many people know they are pregnant. Attacks on abortion access like SB 8 disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color; those working to make ends meet; LGBTQ+ people; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.