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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: Email: media@reproductivefreedomforall.org

False Moderates Advance the War on Women with Support of Extreme Anti-Choice HR 3

Contrary to pledges to focus on jobs and the economy, Reps. Lance and Frelinghuysen support extreme bill that attacks women’s freedom and privacy

WASHINGTON

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Reps. Leonard Lance and Rodney Frelinghuysen's (both R-N.J.) support of H.R.3, an extreme anti-choice bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, an outrageous vote that is wildly out of touch with the values and priorities of their constituents.

"Reps. Lance and Frelinghuysen have traded in their moderate credentials to become foot soldiers in Speaker Boehner's War on Women," Keenan said. "Can Reps. Lance and Frelinghuysen tell their constituents just how many jobs attacking women's freedom and privacy will create? We will remind New Jersey voters just how out of touch their representatives are with their values and priorities before ballots are cast in 2012."

Keenan said that H.R.3 goes beyond previous anti-choice attacks by manipulating the federal tax code to advance an extreme and divisive social-policy agenda. The bill raises taxes on many individuals and small businesses in an effort to end the private insurance coverage of abortion care. Eighty-seven percent of private plans currently include this kind of care.

Additionally, the language of H.R.3 redefined rape to make it more difficult for sexual-assault survivors to access abortion services. While the anti-choice House leadership caved to public outrage on that issue, a non-partisan congressional tax expert later confirmed that H.R.3 could spur the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to audit rape and incest survivors who choose abortion care.

"From this point forward, NARAL Pro-Choice America will be working to educate voters on how Reps. Lance and Frelinghuysen failed to create jobs for their constituents in favor of advancing a bill so extreme that it could force rape and incest survivors to relive their trauma with an IRS agent," Keenan said.

As a result of Speaker Boehner's fixation on attacking a woman's right to choose, NARAL Pro-Choice America's online activist network is adding, on average, 1,000 names a day.

ALSO:

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Reps. Judy Biggert and Robert Dold's (both R-Ill.) support of H.R.3, an extreme anti-choice bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, an outrageous vote that is wildly out of touch with the values and priorities of their constituents.

"Reps. Biggert and Dold have traded in their moderate credentials to become foot soldiers in Speaker Boehner's War on Women," Keenan said. "Can Reps. Biggert and Dold tell their constituents just how many jobs attacking women's freedom and privacy will create? We will remind Illinois voters just how out of touch these politicians are with their values and priorities before they cast their ballots in 2012."

Keenan said that H.R.3 goes beyond previous anti-choice attacks by manipulating the federal tax code to advance an extreme and divisive social-policy agenda. The bill raises taxes on many individuals and small businesses in an effort to end the private insurance coverage of abortion care. Eighty-seven percent of private plans currently include this kind of care.

Additionally, the language of H.R.3 redefined rape to make it more difficult for sexual-assault survivors to access abortion services. While the anti-choice House leadership caved to public outrage on that issue, a non-partisan congressional tax expert later confirmed that H.R.3 could spur the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to audit rape and incest survivors who choose abortion care.

"From this point forward, NARAL Pro-Choice America will be working to educate voters on how Reps. Biggert and Dold failed to create jobs for their constituents in favor of advancing a bill so extreme that it could force rape and incest survivors to relive their trauma with an IRS agent," Keenan said.

As a result of Speaker Boehner's fixation on attacking a woman's right to choose, NARAL Pro-Choice America's online activist network is adding, on average, 1,000 names a day.

For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly 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 everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.

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