The “Stupak on Steroids” Agenda Brings Multiple Attacks on Women’s Health

The anti-choice leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives is moving full steam ahead with its extreme "Stupak on Steroids" agenda, which represents the worst attack on a woman’s right to choose that I have seen in a very long time.

We call it “Stupak on Steroids” because our opponents are putting forward multiple bills that go even further than the Stupak abortion-coverage ban that activists like you helped us defeat in the health-care debate. Clearly, these new leaders won’t take no for answer.

The “Stupak on Steroids” bill, H.R.3, introduced by Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink attack on women’s ability to make personal, private medical decisions:

• It would force millions of American families and small-business owners to pay more taxes if their health plan covers abortion care, jeopardizing abortion coverage in the private market. About 87 percent of insurance plans on the market currently offer abortion coverage.

• It would permanently deny low-income women and federal employees access to abortion coverage.

• It would reimpose the ban on Washington, D.C.'s use of its own local funds for abortion for low-income women, an unfair restriction which Congress lifted in 2009, with the support of President Obama.

• It would permanently deny women in the military access to abortion care at overseas military hospitals, even if they pay for the service with their own money.

H.R.3 is getting a lot of attention, but it’s not the only attack on women’s access to abortion care gaining momentum in the House. Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania recently introduced a new version of his bill, H.R.358. It has the same dangerous attack on women’s abortion coverage we’ve seen before, but it would also allow hospitals to refuse to provide abortion care even when it's necessary to save a woman's life!

These bills are not merely idle threats getting dusty on some shelf at the Capitol. Next Tuesday, February 8, the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on H.R.3, the “Stupak on Steroids” bill. And on Wednesday, February 9, the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee will hold a hearing on H.R.358. That’s right – that’s two hearings on two anti-choice bills in two days.

Speaker John Boehner called passing the “Stupak on Steroids” bill one of the House leadership’s “highest legislative priorities.” This expedited hearing is further evidence that he means it.

What Boehner doesn’t understand is that next week’s hearings make all too clear just how out of touch he and his anti-choice colleagues are with our country’s values and priorities.

Speaker Boehner and other House leaders campaigned on promises of job creation, fiscal responsibility, and "limited government." But what we're seeing from them now is more government interference in our personal, private decisions—not less. How many jobs will be created by hours upon hours spent attacking a woman’s right to choose?

When it comes to attacking women's freedom and privacy, these politicians know no bounds. This debate is just getting started. Any member of Congress who has signed his or her name to this agenda must be held accountable for such extreme attacks against women's reproductive-health services.

Tell your representative that you won’t stand for dangerous attacks on women’s health.

Photo credit: Open Democracy