FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 6, 2016
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Tonight, the anti-choice Senate leadership once again failed to pass an adequate response to the Zika crisis. While public health experts at USAID and the CDC have recommended expanding access to family planning services in response to the epidemic, anti-choice Republicans in the Senate continue to put their obsession with limiting women’s reproductive health ahead of the health of American families. In response to tonight’s vote, NARAL Pro-Choice America Senior Vice President for Campaigns and Strategy Sasha Bruce released the following statement:
“Since Senate Republicans last failed to adequately address the Zika crisis, we’ve learned that the risk of sexually transmitting the virus is greater than once thought—even if the infected person has no symptoms. But instead of supporting the women’s health clinics that are necessary to help women protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases like Zika and plan a healthy pregnancy, anti-choice Republicans are doubling down and refusing to give American families what we need most to protect ourselves and our future children. These are the same politicians who hem and haw about ‘protecting the unborn,’ but when push comes to shove they have shown us where their priorities really lay. For these ideologues, restricting funding to health care providers like Planned Parenthood is apparently more important than the health and safety of the next generation.
“We need to give women and families every chance we can to choose whether, when, and with whom to have a family, especially when the potential side effects of Zika are so immediately threatening. Instead of stumbling over themselves to cut off funding for family planning programs, our lawmakers need to take the advice of experts at the World Health Organization, USAID, and the CDC and expand access to family planning resources. Americans should stand up and say enough to this ridiculous politicking by anti-choice lawmakers in Congress, which is why NARAL will continue to call out this hypocrisy and make sure politicians in Washington put the best interests of our families first.”
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