Tell pro-choice senators to filibuster the House's all-out attack on women

 

If you think we have a solid pro-choice majority in the Senate, think again.
It's up to the Senate to stop the attacks on women now that the House has passed legislation to defund family planning services -- shamefully wiping out federal funding for Planned Parenthood's non-abortion health care for women. And not only that but the redefinition of rape is still on the table and anti-choice Republicans are pushing a bill that would allow hospitals to let pregnant women die rather than perform life-saving abortions.
We cannot take for granted our ability to stop these bills in the Senate. Anti-choice forces in the Senate now out number pro-choice senators 46-40.¹ We need 41 votes to sustain a filibuster of the anti-woman, anti-choice bills coming out of the House. And what's more, we need 41 pro-choice senators who are willing to go toe-to-toe with the extreme, hard right majority. At the end of this fight one side will have to blink.
Tell pro-choice senators: Filibuster any bill that introduces new restrictions on abortion or defunds Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest provider of reproductive health care to women.
There will be enormous pressure on pro-choice members of the Senate to pass the Continuing Resolution on the Budget without stripping provisions to defund Planned Parenthood. In the health care reform fight, this is exactly how the Stupak Amendment was able to pass the House -- women were thrown under the bus in order to get a majority vote for what was considered a "must pass" bill. Back then, conservatives in the Senate prevailed practically without a fight. And now, post-election, we are left with a shrinking pro-choice caucus in the Senate and facing a much bigger threat to women's health and the right to choose. It's scary.
If recent history is our guide, it will most likely be the rightwing, anti-choice forces in the Senate who at the defining moment will refuse to back down. But it doesn't have to be that way. If there is a massive show of support we can help pro-choice senators draw a line in the sand and stop the attacks on women.
Now is the time for pro-choice senators to use hardball tactics to stop Republicans and anti-choice Democrats from making the House's extremist attack on women into the law of the land. We failed to stop Republicans along with conservative Democrats in the House from advancing radical bills to dramatically restrict women's access to abortion and other forms of reproductive healthcare. The Senate can be our firewall. But we need at least 41 pro-choice senators to refuse to cave, and filibuster.
Tell pro-choice senators: Draw a line in the sand and do whatever it takes to block any bill that introduces new restrictions on abortion or defunds Planned Parenthood.
Here are the three extremist bills that the pro-choice senators must be prepared to filibuster.
Defund Planned Parenthood: Pence Amendment and the FY11 Continuing Resolution
The House just passed the Pence Amendment that would specifically prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X family planning funding. Perhaps even more dangerous is the attack on Planned Parenthood in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution that will allow government funding to continue while the Congress argues over the budget. Both the Pence Amendment and the Continuing Resolution take away the Title X funding that currently enables millions of women to obtain birth control, cancer screenings, HIV tests, and other lifesaving care. Planned Parenthood serves over one third of all Title X patients -- and this bill effectively defunds the operation of Planned Parenthood's non-abortion reproductive health care services for women.
Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortions Act: H.R. 3
H.R. 3, the "Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortions Act," in its current form still contains language that would redefine rape and block some women who have been drugged then raped, date raped or were victims of statutory rape from gaining access to reproductive health care that includes abortion. Not only that, but the bill's most devastating provision would still sharply reduce access to safe, legal abortions for women in this country by virtually eliminating private insurance coverage for abortions. The bill accomplishes this by essentially levying a massive tax increase on employers who offer private health care plans that cover abortion as a part of women's reproductive health care.
Protect Life Act: H.R. 358
H.R. 358 or the "Protect Life Act," would allow hospitals to let women die instead of providing a life-saving abortion. If this bill, introduced by Rep. Pitts is passed, hospitals that accept federal funding will have Congress' blessing to turn away a woman who needs an emergency termination of a pregnancy in order to save her life.
We can't let women get thrown under the bus again. And we cannot settle for pro-choice senators who filibuster the stand-alone anti-choice bills but allow a vote on the Continuing Resolution that defunds Planned Parenthood. The most important vote on each of these three bills will not be a "no" vote on passage. It will be the decision to support a filibuster blocking an up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate where anti-choice forces are sure to secure the votes necessary to ratify this extreme assault on women's rights.
The Senate is our firewall. Lines must be drawn. The time is now to take urgent action and stop the attacks on women.
1. "Choice composition of Congress," NARAL Pro-Choice America