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| Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina |
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Ipas staff joined fifty advocates from North Carolina and hundreds from around the United States in a national day of action on Capitol Hill to stop anti-abortion amendments, such as the Stupak-Pitts amendment, from being included in health-care reform legislation. If enacted, the Stupak-Pitts amendment, which was tacked on to the House health-care bill during last minute proceedings, would ban private abortion coverage for millions of women in the United States.
Women and men around the country have expressed outrage at this affront to women’s reproductive health. "Stupak undoes the American principle that all men and all women are created equal," says Anthony Romero, head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In communications with its supporters, Planned Parenthood urged activists who traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with their state representatives to discuss the health-care reform efforts as well as the risks to women’s health should an anti-abortion amendment like Stupak-Pitts be included in the final bill. Ipas staff met with North Carolina Reps. David Price and Bob Etheridge. In addition, North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan met with a group of 50 advocates from North Carolina led by Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).
Activists began their day at a rally during which key government and community leaders spoke out against the Stupak amendment and encouraged Americans to fight for a better health-care bill. Loretta Ross, of the SisterSong Women of Color Collective, roused the crowd with her call to action: “Congress, this is your memo: Women are not your problem. Women are your solution!”
Sen. Barbara Boxer from California added, “This is the biggest rollback in three decades and we're not going to sit idly by! We didn't ask for this fight, we didn't look for it, but now that we're in it, we'll win it!”
To find out how you can help stop the Stupak-Pitts amendment, or similar anti-choice language, from being included in the health-care bill, please click here.
For more information, contact media@ipas.org