NARAL Applauds the EACH Woman Act and its Champions

In response to the introduction of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Woman Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, NARAL Pro-Choice America Vice President Adrienne Kimmell issued the following statement:

“NARAL Pro-Choice America strongly supports the EACH Woman Act for acknowledging that every woman across the country deserves to make her own decisions about if, when and how she starts or grows a family—regardless of her income or how she is insured.

“For four decades, anti-choice legislators have tried to achieve their ultimate goal of criminalizing abortion by making it financially impossible for low-income women, women of color and other marginalized people to access abortion care. The EACH Woman Act is an important step in ensuring extremist politicians no longer interfere with a woman’s decision whether or not to have an abortion so that every woman will have insurance coverage for abortion, however much money she makes.”

The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Woman Act was re-introduced for the third time in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Lee, Schakowsky, DeGette and introduced for the first time in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Duckworth, Hirono, Harris and Murray. The EACH Woman Act would lift the ban on insurance coverage of abortion for women in Medicaid, Medicare, the Indian Health Service, U.S. servicewomen and veterans, federal employees, low-income women in Washington, D.C., and others. The bill accomplishes this by ensuring that federal insurance programs cover abortion services. The bill would also restore access to private insurance coverage across the country by prohibiting state, local, and federal governments from interfering with abortion coverage by private insurance companies.

NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all. For more than 50 years, NARAL has worked 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. Since 1969, NARAL has made history, grown to over 2 million members, and met the moments that have defined this fight with action, power and freedom. 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.”