Pressley Unveils Her Own Resolution, Corrects the Record on Harmful ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers’, Highlights Threats to Actual Abortion Clinics

“To those pressing these divisive anti-choice resolutions, we see right through you. Abortion is healthcare and a fundamental human right.”

Video (YouTube) 

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus’ Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, delivered a floor powerful speech in which she slammed Republicans’ harmful and misleading anti-abortion resolution and rhetoric. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley condemned Republicans for their anti-abortion policy and rhetoric that has threatened the lives of abortion care patients and healthcare providers, and urged her colleagues to support her own resolution correcting the record and condemning political violence.

Rep. Pressley, who is also a lead co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, unveiled the resolution today alongside her Pro-Choice Caucus colleagues, Congresswomen Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Barbara Lee (CA-12).

A full transcript of Rep. Pressley’s remarks is available below, and the full video is available here.

Transcript: Slams Republicans’ Harmful, Misleading Anti-Abortion Resolution
House of Representatives
January 11, 2023

As Chair of the Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, I rise to make plain exactly what is going on here.

This is not a debate about political violence. Political violence and the violent rhetoric that drives it is a persistent threat – my staff, my family, and I know that intimately.

Everyone should condemn it.

Our colleagues across the aisle continue to say the quiet part out loud in their selective contempt for political violence.

This resolution seeks to deny necessary medical care from those who seek it.

Abortion is healthcare and a fundamental human right.

Across the nation, those seeking care are met with intimidation, violence and even loss of life. 

Imagine walking through a screaming crowd to get to a medical appointment.

Imagine being a doctor or a nurse dedicating your life to helping others, and day after day, your workplace receives violent threats and you fear for your life.

But that is not what the other side of the aisle is concerned about.

No. Today, they are trying to mislead the American people.

They are trying to conjure up hateful rhetoric, spreading misinformation about crisis pregnancy centers.

Let me make it plain – crisis pregnancy centers are no place to go to for reproductive health care.

They are sham clinics that coerce folks seeking to terminate a pregnancy or access the full range of reproductive healthcare services.

To those pressing these divisive anti-choice resolutions, we see right through you.

Abortion is healthcare and a fundamental human right.

I urge my colleagues to vote no.

—

In her time serving in Congress, Congresswoman Pressley has fought persistently to protect fundamental reproductive and sexual health care rights. 

• Last year, Congresswoman Pressley, along with U.S. Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion care, everywhere. This bill has twice passed the House of Representatives and awaits passage in the United States Senate.
• She  condemned the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.
• Congresswoman Pressley has been a consistent defender of medication abortion access. In March 2022, Rep. Pressley, along with then-House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Representative Cori Bush, wrote to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra urging him to expand access to medication abortion. In February of 2021, Rep. Pressley led a letter and wrote an op-ed with Chairwoman Maloney on the importance of expanding access to medication abortion care. In June 2019, Rep. Pressley introduced H.R. 3296, the Affordability is Access Act, to make oral contraception available without a prescription.  In September 2021, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Supreme Court’s inaction on SB-8, Texas’ restrictive abortion law. Later that month, she participated in a House Oversight Committee hearing to examine the threat posed by abortion bans and underscored the urgency of the Senate passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. 
• In April 2021, Rep. Pressley, along with Congresswomen Barbara Lee (CA-13), Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), led a group of 131 Democratic members in reintroducing the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act or the EACH Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure that all people, regardless of income, insurance or zip code, are able to make personal reproductive health care decisions without interference from politicians.
• As Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’s Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, Congresswoman Pressley has led the fight to repeal the Hyde Amendments from annual appropriations bills and in July 2020 published a Medium post on the need to do so. 
• In May 2020, she led more than 155 Members of Congress in calling on House Democratic leadership to ensure that any future COVID-19 relief packages rejected Republican efforts to use the public health crisis to diminish abortion access.
• In May 2019, she led more than 100 colleagues in introducing H.Con.Res.40, a resolution reaffirming the House of Representative’s support for Roe v. Wade.
• In September 2016, as a member of the Boston City Council, Pressley championed a resolution calling on Congress and President Obama to repeal the Hyde Amendment and reinstate insurance coverage for abortion services.

###