RE: Opposition to H.R. 8296, the so-called "Women's Health Protection Act"
Dear Representative:
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, strongly opposes the so-called ‘‘Women’s Health Protection Act” (H.R. 8296).
National Right to Life urges you to oppose the bill and will include House roll call vote(s) on this measure in our scorecard of key pro-life votes of the 117th Congress.
This bill would enshrine into law abortion-on-demand and would overturn existing pro-life laws and prevent new protective laws from being enacted at the state and federal levels. This bill seeks to strip away from elected lawmakers the ability to provide even the most minimal protections for unborn children, at any stage of their pre-natal development.
H.R. 8296 would invalidate nearly all existing state limitations on abortion and prohibit states from adopting new limitations in the future.
H.R. 8296 would invalidate most previously enacted federal limits on abortion, including federal conscience protection laws and most, if not all, limits on government funding of abortion.
H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws that protect unborn children at various stages of development, from children who have heartbeats to those capable of experiencing pain. Additionally, H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws limiting abortion even after viability, unless they allow each abortionist to abort based on his assertion that an abortion will preserve emotional “health.”
H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws that provide women with specific information on their unborn child (informed consent requirements) before receiving an abortion, including: the providing of information about whether her child can feel pain, the ability to view her unborn child on an ultrasound or hear her baby’s heartbeat, the providing of information about fetal development, information that a medication abortion can possibly be
reversed, and even information regarding legal responsibilities of biological fathers to provide economic support if she decides to carry her child to term.
Additionally, H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws where a mother is provided alternatives to abortion, state laws providing for reflection periods (waiting periods), as well as state laws allowing medical professionals to opt out of providing abortions. H.R. 8296 would also invalidate state laws regarding parental involvement and consent of a minor’s abortion.
H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws on the use of abortion as a method of sex selection, and
abortions done based on a diagnosis of a disability, including Down Syndrome.
H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws limiting chemical abortions that are done using telemedicine. These types of abortion occur when a mother is not even in the same location as an abortion provider when she is given drugs to end the life of her unborn child.
H.R. 8296 would invalidate state laws that limit the performance of abortions to licensed physicians (meaning that non-physicians could perform and prescribe abortions), and there would be no “requirements or limitations” regarding how an abortion facility is regulated and maintained.
The practices of the abortion industry, or any segment of that industry, or even of an individual practitioner, would be granted extraordinary immunity from constraints or accountability.
Life-affirming laws such as the ones mentioned above generally have broad public support in the states in which they are enacted, including support from substantial majorities of women.
According to pro-abortion groups, if this law is enacted, abortion-on-demand would be allowed in all 50 states. Elective abortion would become the procedure that must always be facilitated – never delayed, never impeded to the slightest degree.
National Right to Life strongly opposes the “Women’s Health Protection Act” and will include the vote in our scorecard of key pro-life votes of the 117th Congress.
Should you have any questions, please contact us at (202) 378-8863, or via e-mail atjpopik@nrlc.org. Thank you for your consideration of NRLC’s position on this important
legislation.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol TobiasDavid N. O'Steen, Ph.D.Jennifer Popik, J.D.
Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and
euthanasia.
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