FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2016
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NARAL Pro-Choice America today responded to vote led by anti-choice Republicans to block a DC law banning discrimination against employees for their reproductive health decisions. The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act (RHNDA) prohibits employers from firing employees because they disagree with their personal health decisions. In 2016, more than 100 DC businesses and 1,000 residents joined with NARAL to oppose Congressional efforts to overturn the law.
“We’re done with the Republican majority in the House paying lip service to supporting women. Their actions speak louder than their rhetoric, and with today’s vote, they continued their relentless campaign to rob women of our reproductive freedom and enshrine discrimination into our laws. By voting to block DC’s anti-discrimination law, they willfully leave women in our nation’s capital vulnerable to discrimination based on our personal reproductive health decisions,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “A woman should never fear being fired for her decision about whether, when, and with whom to grow her family. That decision should be a woman’s alone and not decided for her by an employer or by Congress. Every single person who voted for this should be ashamed, regardless of which side of the aisle you sit on.”
Introduced by Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), the amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act blocks funds from being used to implement the RHNDA. House Republicans took similar actions in April 2015, though that resolution was not signed into law.
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