Yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed the “Let Her Die” bill, sponsored by Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA) and supported by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). The bill proposes to “prohibit federal funds from being used to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion services.”
The bill would also permit hospitals that morally object to abortion to deny women the procedure when their lives are at risk. Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) testified against the bill on the House floor, saying, “I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding. If I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to do is misogynist.”
Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, stated, “While our country desperately longs for a jobs bill, the House Republicans yet again took up an anti-abortion bill. This one is especially mean-spirited, irresponsible, and misogynistic, and would result in some young women dying without treatment from bleeding from either hemorrhaging or a tubal pregnancy that has erupted.”
The bill, which purports to ensure that healthcare reform law does not cover the cost of abortions, is misleading because the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funding of abortion since 1976. The bill is very unlikely to pass the Senate.
Huffington Post 10/13/11; Feminist Daily Newswire 10/13/11
