November, 04 2010, 03:13pm EDT
NARAL Pro-Choice America to John Boehner: Don't Even Think About It
As Boehner includes anti-choice speech among his “pillars of a new majority,” pro-choice group launches national action targeting the presumed speaker
WASHINGTON
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said her organization has launched a national activist campaign calling on pro-choice supporters to let John Boehner, the presumed incoming speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, know that his attacks on a woman's right to choose won't go unchecked.
NARAL Pro-Choice America's online mobilization, which also includes ads on Google and Facebook, coincides with Boehner's inclusion of a speech he delivered to the National Right to Life Committee on June 26 in a document he calls the "pillars of a new majority." In less than 24 hours since the launch, more than 5,500 pro-choice Americans have told Boehner: We're watching...don't even think about it.
"Less than 48 hours after polls closed, John Boehner did exactly what we expected him to do: make attacking a woman's right to choose a cornerstone of his agenda," Keenan said. "Boehner is a blank slate to much of the public. We are informing Americans that Boehner is a politician who believes that he, as a member of Congress, is more qualified than women to make personal, private decisions, including the right to choose. It is clear that, instead of focusing on creating jobs and limiting the role of government in our lives, Boehner's first political priority is pacifying his extreme far-right base. The action we launched is just the first step in holding Boehner accountable."
Keenan said Boehner has accepted the endorsement of the Republican National Coalition for Life, which requires all endorsed candidates to "indicate they are faithfully pro-life, and do not justify abortion for innocent babies who are conceived through rape or incest." In addition, NARAL Pro-Choice America outlined the key ways a House under Boehner's control is poised to attack safe, legal abortion, birth control, and sex education:
- Push the new "Stupak on Steroids" bill. This bill is even worse than the original Stupak ban in health reform. It would ban coverage of abortion in the new system and impose a tax on Americans with private insurance plans that include abortion coverage. (Keep in mind, 87 percent of private plans include such coverage.) Boehner is one of more than 180 current members of the House who are cosponsors of this legislation.
- Repeal the health-reform law. It's outrageous, but our opponents have threatened to overturn the health-care law, which promises major improvements in women's access to birth control and prenatal care services.
- Revive the failed, Bush-era "abstinence-only" programs that censored discussion of birth control.
- Cut funding for family-planning programs that provide women access to basic health care, such as birth control and cancer screening.
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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