FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2017
[email protected]
(Washington, D.C.) — Today, the anti-choice Graham-Cassidy-Heller healthcare bill failed to gather enough votes in the U.S. Senate. Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, released the following statement in response to reports that the Senate will not hold a vote on the bill:
“For more than nine months, healthcare for tens of millions of Americans has been under near-daily assault from anti-choice Republicans in Washington determined to put their backwards ideology and failed campaign promises over Americans’ healthcare needs. Today, we celebrate that once again they have failed. Since the election, NARAL’s member-activists across the country recognized the immediate threat, mobilized on the ground, picked up the phones, and made their voices heard. The message we sent is clear: We reject any attempt to reverse the gains we’ve made to improve the well-being of women and families.
“The great hypocrisy of all these repeal efforts did not go unnoticed. The senators pushing them claim to be in the “pro-life” party, but their bill left people to die without life-saving care. It slashed maternity coverage for mothers and future mothers, and denied them the care they need to have the healthiest pregnancies and babies possible. It even jacked up healthcare costs for cancer patients by potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. If they truly wanted to improve people’s lives, they would have never promoted this deadly legislation.
“Anti-choice Republicans will never give up on their attempts to ram through their ideological and extreme agenda that would punish women and families, and we will never let down our guard. The only way to protect the Affordable Care Act and reproductive healthcare access is to elect champions who will stand up for us.
“To Republicans who have voted for these repeal efforts over the last nine months, we have a simple message for you: See you at the ballot box.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all Americans. NARAL works to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”
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