“These bills are intentionally designed to mislead, with biased and inaccurate information, and to shame those who seek abortion care.”

“Republicans are continuing their politically violent, thinly-veiled misinformation campaign to ultimately enact a national abortion ban—a forced birth mandate.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON — Today in a speech on the House Floor, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’ Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, criticized Republicans for advancing two harmful anti-abortion bills that would mislead those seeking abortion care on college campuses and divert federal funding away from vulnerable children and families to support sham, anti-abortion counseling centers known as “crisis pregnancy centers.”

Rep. Pressley is a lead co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion care, everywhere. 

Footage of Rep. Pressley’s floor speech can be found here, and a transcript is below.

Transcript: Rep. Ayanna Pressley Blasts GOP for Harmful, Misleading Anti-Abortion Bills on Pregnant Students, Sham Abortion Clinics
U.S. House of Representatives
January 17, 2023

Mr. Speaker if we defeat the previous question, we will bring up legislation to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions: the Women’s Health Protection Act.

This is necessary because Republican bills being brought to the floor share a common goal: to limit access to reproductive healthcare for those who need it most.

Like so many of the bills this Republican majority has advanced, these bills are intentionally designed to mislead, with biased and inaccurate information, and to shame those who seek abortion care.

Republicans are continuing their politically violent, thinly-veiled misinformation campaign to ultimately enact a national abortion ban—a forced birth mandate.

And now they are using our pregnant students as their pawns.

The young woman in college making the life-changing decision on when and how to start a family deserves comprehensive and medically accurate information.

Do not fall for the okey-doke. They are playing with people’s lives instead of trying to save and change and improve them.

Republicans do not care about the people—certainly not pregnant students. They have consistently undermined access to contraception, defunded on-campus childcare, and excluded information on essential abortion care from the bill they want us to vote for.

In fact, Republicans do not care about any pregnant person when they seek to expand crisis pregnancy centers.

Since my days on the Boston City Council, I have fought to stop these sham clinics. They use coercion to prevent women from accessing essential abortion care and operate as anti-choice propaganda centers.

As the Chair of the Abortion Rights and Access Task Force under our Pro-Choice Caucus, allow me to set the record straight: abortion care is health care and a fundamental human right.

When the Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion – with the support of Republicans nationwide – they created the most life-threatening conditions for pregnant women in America in over fifty years.

If Republicans truly cared about pregnant students, or healthcare, or personal autonomy, or even the fundamental right – freedom – to make decisions about your own body, they would bring our bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, to the House floor to overturn the Dobbs decision and codify the right to an abortion.

Anything less is a disgrace.

I urge my colleagues to vote ‘no’ on the previous question and I yield back the balance of my time.

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