DC Abortion Ban Moves Forward in the House

Last week the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that appropriates funding for the District of Columbia for fiscal year 2012. Unfortunately, this bill contains an all too familiar threat to women’s health and local sovereignty in the form of the DC abortion ban.

The DC abortion ban prevents the District of Columbia from using its own, locally-raised revenue to pay for abortion care. The ban, which Congress lifted in 2009 with the strong support of President Obama, was recently included as part of the final continuing resolution to fund the government. In response, the National Women’s Law Center and other pro-choice advocates railed against the inclusion of the abortion ban in the final deal as an attack on poor women, a large number of whom are women of color, in the District who will no longer have the means to seek this safe, legal health care service or may have to sacrifice other basic needs in order to cover the costs of an abortion.

This marks yet another in a long line of anti-choice bills that have come forward in the House in recent months that have restricted women’s access to safe abortion care. What makes this ban particularly insidious is that it not only serves to harm low income women who depend on local Medicaid contributions for a variety of health care needs, including comprehensive abortion services, it also infringes on the rights of all DC residents to determine how to use their own local tax revenues in their community.

During the debate over the bill, Representative Barbara Lee offered an amendment that would have repealed the ban and restored the District’s ability to use locally raised revenue to pay for abortion care. Though the amendment failed, we are grateful to Representative Lee for championing this issue, to Representatives Nita Lowey and Rosa DeLauro for their strong words, and to all those who stood with the women of the District of Columbia against this terrible policy.

Playing keep-away with low-income women’s health care access is not what DC residents had in mind when the District’s budget was submitted to Congress. As this bill moves forward, we must tell Congress to stop playing politics with women’s health and to keep-out of local decisions to support those who need help most.

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http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/dc-abortion-ban-moves-forward-h ouse

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