Right-wing Senator David Vitter (R-LA), who has announced that he plans to run for governor this year, introduced four bills in the Senate that represent his extreme anti-abortion and anti-reproductive health stance.
The US House last week introduced a bill to ban 20-week abortions – that bill, and the four introduced by Vitter, add up to five anti-reproductive health bills introduced by Republican legislators in just the first three days of the new Congress. During midterm elections, many of these Republican senators downplayed their anti-reproductive choice views, but with the Congress having a new Republican majority, the legislation speaks volumes.
“Congress has only been back for a couple of days, and already some politicians are trying to take women backwards and restricting their access to the health care that helps them and their families succeed,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
One proposed bill requires abortion providers to get admitting privileges with a hospital nearby – a law that would almost certainly close many safe clinics. Laws such as this are already in effect in several states. One bill would allow health care providers to deny a woman an abortion even in an emergency. One bill would defund family planning services, such as those of Planned Parenthood, at the federal level. And the fourth bill would ban abortions if the doctor believes the procedure was requested on the basis of the gender of the fetus.
Vitter is remembered by some by for a major prostitution scandal more than a decade ago. He has a long history of supporting legislation that would: prohibit minors from going to another state to receive abortion services, ban funding for family planning services in aid the US provides abroad, prohibit federal funds from discriminating against health providers who refuse to provide or to train for abortion services, stop funds to reduce teen pregnancy rates through education and access to contraception, require parents to be notified when their minor children get out-of-state abortions, stop human embryonic stem cell research, allow the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to apply to the unborn, restrict UN funding for policies of population control, and protect the unborn under the 14th amendment.
Media Resources: The Hill 1/14/2015; RH Reality Check 1/9/2015; The Huffington Post 1/8/2015; Planned Parenthood 1/8/2015; The Louisiana Weekly 5/20/2013; On The Issues
