House Pro-Choice Caucus co-Chairs Call Out Attempt to Use Must-Pass Funding Measure to Attack Women’s Health

WASHINGTON – Today, Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY), co-Chairs of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, criticized an attempt to attack women's health by attaching an ideological policy rider to a funding bill that must pass before December 11^th to avoid a government shutdown. The rider would double down on the Supreme Court's controversial Hobby Lobby decision by allowing corporations to exercise a "conscience clause" to deny certain types of health coverage mandated under the Affordable Care Act to their employees.

In a letter to Speaker John Boehner, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers and Ranking Member Nita Lowey, DeGette and Slaughter expressed their dismay that some Members would risk shutting down the entire federal government over an ideological objection to women's health coverage.

Read the letter below:

Dear Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi, Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Lowey,

Recent news reports have indicated that several colleagues in the House of Representatives hope to use forthcoming appropriations legislation as a vehicle for language that would severely compromise women's health. As co-chairs of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, we write to express our strong opposition to subverting the legislative process in order to promote ideological platforms.

The legislative proposals that we understand have been discussed would effectively undo the preventive services benefits of the Affordable Care Act and allow a private right of action for any individual or corporation that feels it has experienced a violation of "conscience" as a result of providing any health care service to which they have an objection. This broad language goes far beyond other related proposals previously rejected in the Senate and would severely restrict access to necessary health care services, especially for women.

This kind of political maneuvering – using must-pass legislation to accomplish a "wish list" of one faction of Congress and risking a government shutdown - is precisely the kind of behavior the American people detest. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to keep any appropriations legislation considered before the close of the 113th Congress free from ideological policy riders.

Sincerely,

Louise M. Slaughter

Member of Congress

Diana DeGette

Member of Congress