Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, stated his vehement opposition to H.R. 7, which would impose unacceptable limits on a woman’s reproductive rights. During a press conference prior to the Judiciary Committee’s hearing on H.R. 7, Congressman Nadler railed against this attempt to roll back hard-won reproductive rights, and against cynical Republican mischaracterizations of their intent.
The following is the text of Congressman Nadler’s statement for the press conference:
“As their first order of business this new year and legislative session, House Republicans are once again pushing their aggressive anti-woman, anti-family agenda. They do so today with H.R. 7, the misnamed and misleading ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.’
“I have news for my colleagues in the Majority: Congress unfortunately already has the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funding of abortion and has done so for more than thirty years. H.R. 7 goes much further. It is not needed, nor is it a mere codification of existing law.
“All their rhetoric about ‘public funding’ is a smokescreen. The real purpose and effect of H.R. 7 is to eliminate health care choices for women, by imposing significant tax penalties on women and small employers, when they use their own money to pay for abortion or for insurance that covers abortion. This tax penalty – and the significant accounting and administrative gymnastics it demands from insurers – is intended to drive insurance companies into excluding abortion services from existing comprehensive health care policies that women and families now have and rely upon.
“My colleagues in the majority believe that if you like your insurance coverage, you should get to keep it, unless it is for choices that they don’t like. Then, they have no qualms about taking your coverage away.
“H.R. 7 is an unprecedented attack on the use of private funds to make private health care choices. It is neither justifiable nor necessary to prevent Federal funding of abortion and we will vehemently oppose its passage through the Committee today.”