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For Immediate Release
October, 18 2011, 02:05pm EDT
Contact:
Ted Miller, 202.973.3032
Sen. DeMint Injects Anti-Choice Politics into Appropriations Bill
Anti-choice politician uses a spending bill to tell women and doctors they can’t communicate about abortion access through the nation’s communications systems
WASHINGTON
Less than a week after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass an extreme anti-choice bill, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has filed an anti-choice amendment to an appropriations bill related to agriculture, transportation, housing, and other programs. The Senate could take action on this measure as early as today.
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Sen. DeMint's amendment is similar to one the House of Representatives voted to insert into an agriculture bill on June 17. The amendment could bar discussion of abortion over the Internet and through videoconferencing, even if a woman's health is at risk and if this kind of communication with her doctor is her best option to receive care.
"Sen. DeMint is so obsessed with attacking a woman's right to choose that he's using an agriculture and transportation bill to advance his agenda," Keenan said. "Last week, anti-choice politicians in the House used an entire day to pass yet another anti-choice measure. Apparently, Sen. DeMint is trying to play catch up with the House. This kind of political gamesmanship jeopardizes women's health and privacy and is out of touch with our country's values and priorities."
Keenan also said banning any discussion or reference to abortion over the national communications system, as Sen. DeMint proposes, would have profoundly negative effects on women's health.
"What about a woman experiencing a high-risk pregnancy who is talking with her doctor through video conferencing?" Keenan said. "Under Sen. DeMint's extreme plan, if abortion came up in that doctor-patient conversation, the woman and her physician would have to go to a separate communications system. He's calling for an abortion-only version of Skype. It is impractical, ridiculous, and, most importantly, bad for women in rural or remote areas who would not be able to discuss the full set of options with their doctor."
Keenan also said that 87 percent of U.S. counties are without an abortion provider, making the notion of banning discussion of abortion between health-care professionals in rural areas even more alarming.
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.
202.973.3000LATEST NEWS
Watch: Zohran Mamdani Disses Trump-Israel War on Iran With Legendary Tupac Lyric
"Tupac said it decades ago, it continues to be true."
Apr 10, 2026
He may prefer Biggie over Tupac, but New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a nod to the latter's immortal observation on misplaced national priorities during an interview in which he condemned the US-Israeli war against Iran.
"I've made clear my very deep opposition to this war in Iran," Mamdani told Richard Gaisford in a "Talk to Al Jazeera" segment aired Thursday on the Qatari news network. "It is an opposition not just of a procedural nature or a political nature, but frankly of a moral nature."
"We are speaking about a war that has killed thousands of civilians, a war that is deeply unpopular across this city and across this country," Mamdani said. "Not just because of what we are seeing it result in, but also because it is utilizing tens of billions of dollars to kill people, money that could otherwise be spent on making life easier for people across this city and this country."
"The very things that I often speak about that are necessary for working class New Yorkers that we are told are impossible or unrealistic, they would cost a fraction of this tens of billions that we're seeing," the mayor asserted.
Gaisford asked Mamdani if he is frustrated that "$900 million a day [is] being spent on the war, when you have projects that cost much less that can make a difference."
"I think it should frustrate all of us, you know what I mean?" the democratic socialist mayor replied. "Tupac said it decades ago, it continues to be true, about the fact that we always seem to have money for war but not to feed the poor. And that is not the way politics should be; that is not what Americans want politics to be."
Mamdani was referring to Tupac Shakur's 1993 track "Keep Ya Head Up," which contains the lyrics, "You know, it's funny when it rains it pours/They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor."
Shakur's 1998 song "Changes" also feels relevant today, as the slain rapper asks, "Can't a brother get a little peace?/It's war on the streets and the war in the Middle East/Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me."
Watch Mamdani's interview with Gaisford here:
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A suspect was arrested in San Francisco Friday after being accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of Sam Altman, the CEO of the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI.
The 20-year-old man was found at the OpenAI headquarters about three miles away from Altman's home, where he was threatening to burn down the building, San Francisco police said.
The device the suspect threw onto Altman's property in the Russian Hill neighborhood caused a fire on the exterior gate. It was unclear whether Altman and his family were at home.
The suspect was in custody Friday, with charges pending.
Altman's company and other companies have been under fire as AI has expanded rapidly at President Donald Trump's urging, with the president issuing an executive order attacking states' ability to regulate the industry.
Experts have warned the expansion of generative AI threatens jobs and democracy, with political campaigns already using the technology to create fraudulent media in advertisements.
Massive, energy-sucking AI data centers have also been blamed for higher household electricity bills and water consumption.
Protesters have rallied against Altman's company for agreeing to provide its technology to the Department of Defense.
In November, The New York Times reported, a person who had once been associated with the anti-AI group Stop AI "expressed interest in causing physical harm to OpenAI employees," causing the company to lock down its headquarters.
On Friday, Stop AI condemned the attack on Altman's house and emphasized that the group "seeks to protect human life."
"We do not condone any violence whatsoever," said the group. "We pray everyone involved in this situation puts aside violence and finds peace, and we continue to hope the AI industry stops the development of frontier AI systems in the interest of public safety and the preservation of humanity. To the best of our knowledge, this incident did not involve anyone who has ever been associated with our group. And this action is wholly inconsistent with our values."
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On the same day that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation spiked at its fastest monthly rate in four years, the Trump administration unveiled renderings of President Donald Trump's proposed gold-covered 250-foot-tall arch to be built at Memorial Circle in Washington, DC.
The renderings, which were produced by architecture firm Harrison Design and posted on social media by the White House's rapid response account, show a gigantic arch that would be flanked on its corners by four gold lions and topped by a 60-foot-tall gold statue of what appears to be an angel.
🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zcH5TtaOu7
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 10, 2026
According to a Friday report in The Washington Post, some preservationists have expressed concerns that the arch, which would be more than twice the height of the Lincoln Monument, would disproportionately tower over the DC skyline, and would block views of Arlington National Cemetery.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) slammed the president for pushing construction of a gaudy gold-covered arch at a time when Americans are struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis worsened by his war in Iran.
"While Americans worry about skyrocketing costs and another endless war," he wrote in a social media post, "President Trump is focused on a taxpayer-funded vanity project that would choke traffic, block our skyline, and tower over sacred ground where those who served our nation are buried, including my own parents and sister."
Beyer added that the arch is "about Donald Trump's ego," and vowed, "we're going to stop it."
Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) responded to the renderings by reminding the White House that "Americans can't afford groceries."
Progressive activist Nina Turner had a similar reaction to Clark, posting that "people can’t afford rent" in response to the renderings.
Podcaster Brian Taylor Cohen contrasted the renderings of the arch with a statement Trump made earlier this month when he said "it’s not possible" for the federal government "to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things," because it needs to fund wars instead.
University of Missouri English professor Karen Piper also remarked on the opportunity cost of building the arch, along with other assorted Trump projects.
"This is why they're going to take away your Social Security, saying we can't afford it," she wrote. "Ballrooms, arches, and Don Jr. draining the Treasury."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been named as a contender for the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nomination, responded to the arch renderings by accusing Trump of "doing everything he can to wreck this country—this time with our nation's capital."
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) took issue with the decision to inscribe the phrase "one nation under God" at the top of the arch.
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