NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to the Release of President Biden’s Presidential Budget - Reproductive Freedom for All

Formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America

Press Release

NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to the Release of President Biden’s Presidential Budget

For Immediate Release: Monday, March 28, 2022
Contact: [email protected]

 

Washington, DC Today, President Joe Biden submitted his presidential budget to begin the annual process of funding the federal government. Similar to last year’s historic budget, this year’s budget is free of the discriminatory Hyde Amendment and excludes the Washington, DC abortion ban, which prohibits DC from using its own, locally raised funds to provide insurance coverage of abortion to people working to make ends meet in the District of Columbia—continuing the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to advancing reproductive freedom.

NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement in response:

“Presidential budgets are meant to reflect the values of an administration—and the Biden-Harris administration is once again saying loud and clear that reproductive freedom and access to care is a priority for the administration. This is more important than ever as the Supreme Court prepares to hand down a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a case that directly challenges Roe v. Wade. We applaud the Biden-Harris administration for continuing to follow through on its promise to end the Hyde Amendment’s discriminatory ban on abortion coverage and urge them to take concrete steps to protect our freedom to make our decisions about pregnancy and abortion.

We are grateful for the hard work and leadership of our partners in the reproductive justice movement leading the fight against discriminatory restrictions like the Hyde Amendment, which disproportionately harms people who are already marginalized by our healthcare system, including women of color, young people, and transgender and non-binary people. Their tireless work has brought us closer to a future where access to abortion care doesn’t depend on how much money someone earns, how they are insured, or where they live.”

The Biden-Harris administration’s actions today undoubtedly advance reproductive freedom and we look forward to working together with the administration and Congress to end policies curtailing access to abortion care in the United States and around the world. In addition to the policies excluded from this year’s presidential budget, we look forward to ending other abortion coverage bans, as well as the Weldon and Helms Amendments. It’s critical that Congress builds on the steps taken today and prioritizes protecting and expanding access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare—including abortion care—by eliminating restrictions on abortion coverage, restrictions on the use of foreign assistance for abortion care like the Helms Amendment, and denial of care policies like the Weldon Amendment from Congressional spending bills.

The stakes for reproductive freedom are higher than ever before. In the coming months, the Supreme Court will rule in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a case concerning Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that directly challenges Roe v. Wade and threatens to end the constitutional right to abortion. If the Court upholds Mississippi’s ban, the constitutional right to abortion will cease to exist as we know it. Should Roe fall, 28 states would likely take action to prohibit abortion outright. Of those, 13 states already have “trigger bans” in place, which would automatically ban abortion.

Even as Roe stands, state lawmakers across the country are working harder than ever to rollback abortion access and find new and increasingly cruel ways to ban and restrict abortion. Anti-choice lawmakers have already introduced over 500 restrictions on abortion this year, including bans on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, bans modeled after Texas’ vigilante-enforced ban on abortion, and restrictions on medication abortion care. The people hurt most by abortion restrictions are those who already face barriers to accessing the care they need—including women; Black, Indigenous and people of color; those working to make ends meet; LGBTQ+ people; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.

Despite the anti-choice movement’s relentless efforts to restrict reproductive freedom and ban abortion, the vast majority of Americans—8 in 10—support the legal right to abortion.

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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, 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 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.