DeGette Leads Fight against Attacks on Women’s Health
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (CO-01) led her Democratic colleagues in standing against the latest Republican attack on women's health care. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015 was hastily pushed to the House floor by Republican leadership and will make it more difficult and more expensive for women to receive comprehensive health care coverage.
"This bill would vastly expand the current restrictions on a woman's right to get her own health care through her insurance that she, her family, and her doctor think they need with her own private money," said Rep. DeGette. "Under H.R. 7, people who buy their insurance through exchanges and their employers would not be able to spend their own private dollars buying insurance that they need for themselves and their families. This would be a terrible wedge between parents and their doctors."
In addition to restricting access to vital reproductive health care for women across this country, H.R. 7 would raise taxes on small businesses whose comprehensive coverage includes abortion coverage for their employees. Given that roughly 87 percent of private health insurance plans include coverage for abortion services, passage of this bill would levy a tax hike a on a large swath of American families and small businesses.
"The vast majority of Americans think that a woman's private health care decisions should be made between herself, her family, and her doctor," added Rep. DeGette. "Why aren't we spending our time this week talking about how the women of America can get better paychecks? Why aren't we spending our time this week talking about how the women and men of America can get tax credits so that the children that they do have can get quality childcare. Why aren't we spending our time this week talking about how women and men should be able to get paid the same amount for doing the same job. That's what I think this Congress should be doing, not passing these bills which are false statements about a woman's private decisions about her health care."
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