Threat on Federal Level

The Trump/Pence administration and the emboldened anti-choice majorities in Congress are both hostile toward abortion rights and women’s access to affordable contraceptive care.

  • Anti-choice lawmakers in DC want to shut down Planned Parenthood because comprehensive reproductive healthcare includes abortion care. They are determined to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the Affordable Care Act repeal process OR through defunding Title X.
  • The Trump/Pence administration wants to dismantle Roe v Wade. Anti-choice lawmakers in DC have launched a new wave of attacks – introducing bills to ban abortion nationwide (at 6 weeks and 20 weeks) and to end access to abortion for low-income women by making the Hyde Amendment permanent. {source: GovTrack, 2017}
  • The Trump/Pence administration wants to reverse Roe v. Wade by actively appointing anti-choice judicial activists to The Supreme Court and lower-level federal courts across the country.

THE TRUTH

1. Abortions are only 3% of the care provided by Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is being deceptively labeled as strictly an abortion provider.

  • 31% is contraception and 65% is basic and preventative healthcare including pap-smears, cancer screenings, STD testing and more
  • Over 60% of Planned Parenthood care recipients rely on publicly funded health programs like Medicaid and Title X for their preventative and primary care. So “defunding” Planned Parenthood means blocking poor women, and disproportionately women of color, from getting healthcare. {all Planned Parenthood statistics provided by Planned Parenthood NJ}

2. Despite an American majority supportive of legal abortion, only 40 out of 100 U.S. Senators and 174 out of 435 members of the House voted fully pro-choice in 2017.

  • We don’t have enough votes to stop these federal anti-choice bills from passing, and we no longer have a President who will veto them.It is the pro-choice citizens and activists who have stopped their representatives from passing these federal laws.  
    {source: prochoiceamerica.org, Congressional Record, 114th Congress}

3. Roe v Wade is in serious jeopardy.

  • Recently appointed Justice Gorsuch is anti-choice and has ruled against reproductive freedom in many cases during his career before becoming a Supreme Court Justice.
  • With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Kennedy, it is certain that the next Justice will be the deciding vote on Roe v Wade.
  • Not to mention that two of the strongest supporters of reproductive freedom on the Supreme Court are Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is 83 years old, and Justice Stephen Breyer, who is 78 years old.
  • AND the administration is actively filling lower-level federal courts across the country with anti-choice judicial nominees who will limit reproductive rights by upholding dangerous anti-choice state laws. These are lifetime appointments with deep influence over this nation for generations.

If The Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the issue of abortion will go back to the states.  According to the Guttmacher Institute:

    • 4 states have “trigger laws” which automatically make abortion illegal as soon as the decision is overturned.
    • 10 states have pre-Roe abortion bans or restrictions still on the books which would have to be re-instated or eliminated
    • 7 states have passed decrees expressing their intent to limit abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned
    • 9 states have laws that ensure abortion is legal within their borders