After dangerous escalation by GOP, NARAL endorses all Democrats on the Select Panel on Women’s Health

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2016

Move Comes One Day After Republicans on the Panel Sought Political Benefit by Moving to Hold A Private Company in Contempt

With anti-choice Republicans on the House Select Panel escalating their attacks on women’s health yesterday by moving to hold a private company in contempt of Congress, today NARAL announced its endorsements of all of the Democratic members of the Select Panel. The move by NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC is a swift rebuke to the Republican-led panel’s vote yesterday to hold the private medical company Stem Express in contempt of Congress despite their ongoing cooperation with the panel’s increasingly onerous demands. Yesterday’s actions—which were protested by the panel’s Democratic members who then walked out of the hearing—were the latest turn of events in a Republican-led witch hunt that has used taxpayer money, intimidation, and threats to push a radical, anti-choice agenda and smear women’s health providers like Planned Parenthood.

The Democrats receiving the endorsement—who have been among the leading pro-choice champions in Congress—are Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).

“The Democrats who sit on the Select Panel are on the front lines of combating a dangerous new trend of Republican-led intimidation and threats toward women’s health providers,” said Sasha Bruce, senior vice president of campaigns and strategy at NARAL. “While we have always known that the Republican’s taxpayer-funded witch hunt was politically motivated, yesterday’s actions were a dangerous escalation in their crusade to limit women’s health options. It’s time for the pro-choice majority in our country to hold these anti-choice Republican politicians accountable for their McCarthy-style abuse of government resources to push their personal agendas. That’s why NARAL and our one-million member activists across the nation are proud to stand with the pro-choice Democrats on the Select Panel as they fight against this partisan abuse of the public trust and misplaced priorities.”

Since the panel’s inception, NARAL has actively opposed the House GOP’s publicly funded campaign to smear Planned Parenthood and roll back women’s reproductive freedom. The Select Panel’s dangerous attacks, funded by taxpayer dollars under the guise of an “investigation,” have only succeeded in hurting women’s reproductive freedom while failing to uplift the very women and families the panel should be protecting.

The committee is chaired by radical anti-choice leader Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). In response to her hyper-partisan actions, NARAL has taken the unprecedented step of working to mobilize the pro-choice majority across Tennessee to hold her accountable for her out-of-touch agenda.

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