For Immediate Release: Friday, November 20, 2020

Contact: [email protected]

Washington, DC — NARAL Pro-Choice America looks forward to working with President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to protect and advance reproductive freedom in the months and years ahead. Over the last four years, Trump and his allies have attacked reproductive freedom and undermined our democracy at every turn. On the heels of these unprecedented attacks on our fundamental freedoms, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are ready to meet this moment with bold and decisive action to advance reproductive freedom.

“We are excited to turn the page on this dark chapter in our history and usher in a new era of leadership in our country that will put our collective health, safety, and wellbeing first,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “We are confident that the Biden-Harris administration will champion the values of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support reproductive freedom. The incoming administration is on track to fulfill its promise to protect and expand access to abortion care and birth control. President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris understand the critical importance of promoting policies that affirm everyone’s dignity, putting science above ideology, and pursuing a future where every body can make their own decisions about their lives and health, free from political interference.” 

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have vowed to work to safeguard Roe v. Wade and only appoint judges who will respect Roe. This commitment is a critical step toward ensuring that the legal right to abortion remains intact at a time when our federal judiciary is stacked with anti-choice ideologues and Trump was able to tip the balance on the Supreme Court to a 6-3 supermajority hostile to reproductive freedom. The President-elect and Vice President-elect have also made clear their intention to use executive action to protect and expand reproductive freedom, including reversing Trump’s rules gutting access to abortion and contraception, like the global and domestic gag rules.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have joined a growing number of elected leaders, including Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in supporting the repeal of the racist and discriminatory abortion coverage ban known as the Hyde Amendment. Abortion coverage bans like the Hyde Amendment disproportionately hurt people already harmed by disparities in our healthcare systems, especially Black and Brown women, transgender and non-binary people, and those with lower incomes.

The Trump administration doubled down on its hostility toward reproductive freedom by appointing anti-choice cabinet members who executed on Trump’s unpopular agenda of power and control. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led the Trump administration’s efforts to attack reproductive freedom on the world stage, which included an anti-abortion rights declaration and establishing the anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ rights Commission on Unalienable Rights. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, who referred to his agency as the “Department of Life” in a statement at last year’s anti-choice March for Life, has worked tirelessly to undermine reproductive freedom and attack access to abortion and contraception. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions acted as a rubber-stamp for health care discrimination and worked to advance the refusal of care rule.

As we turn the page on four years of unyielding attacks on reproductive freedom, it is more important than ever that we have cabinet officials ready to undo the damage of their predecessors. We know that the incoming Biden-Harris administration understands that true reproductive freedom cannot be achieved until every body is free to make their own decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their futures. As a result, we trust that the incoming administration will appoint key cabinet members who have a demonstrated record of supporting reproductive freedom.

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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters have fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom—including access to abortion, contraception, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 7 in 10 Americans who believe every person should have the freedom to make the best decision for themselves about if, when, and how to raise a family.