Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–January 8, 2016. President Barack Obama today vetoed a measure that attempted to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal key pieces of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The measure was pushed through the Senate last month using the budget reconciliation process–which requires only 51 votes to pass legislation rather than the customary 60 votes–and approved by the House yesterday by a vote of 240-181. The measure was brought to the floor by Senate leadership less than a week after a deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The measure (HR 3762) would have stripped Planned Parenthood of federal Medicaid funding for one year, denying millions of low-income people around the country access to preventive health care including cancer screenings and contraception.
HR 3762 also would have dismantled essential elements of the ACA, such as the individual and employer mandates, ACA marketplace subsidies, and Medicaid expansion, cutting off affordable access to health care coverage for millions of people across the United States.
Said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights:
“We applaud President Obama for stepping in to halt this reckless and politically-motivated crusade against women’s health care.
“The President’s veto will prevent this measure from doing immediate harm to one of the nation’s most essential providers of care and the women and men they serve. It’s time for the politicians behind these attacks to stop feeding a dangerous climate of misinformation and overheated rhetoric.”
Opponents of safe and legal abortion have created an increasingly hostile environment around women accessing the full range of reproductive health care. Between violence at health centers and a variety of legislative attacks against reproductive health care providers, women in this country are facing an unprecedented number of barriers when they need to end a pregnancy safely and legally.
Source: http://www.reproductive rights.org
