Resist Trump Action: January 26, 2017
This comes to us courtesy of Paula in yesterday’s comments regarding H.R. 7 – No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017.
Planned Parenthood sums up the problem:
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R.7, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017,” a dangerous assault on women’s health. The bill is a thinly-veiled attempt to take away the comprehensive private health insurance coverage that millions of women have today and to make the Hyde amendment and other federal abortion bans permanent.
The Bustle also summarizes:
HR-7 is causing such a furor on the left side of the political spectrum because of how much it would limit women’s access to safe abortions, and it would disproportionately affect low-income women and women of color. Basically, if it were to make it through the Senate to be signed into law by Donald Trump, anyone getting their health insurance through the federal government will not be able to use their insurance to pay for an abortion. That will be true whether the insurance comes from a job in any branch of the government, private health insurance through Affordable Care Act subsidies, or Medicaid. Women will be allowed to pay for an abortion out of pocket, sure — but if you’re on Medicaid already, chances are that that’s going to be prohibitively expensive. That’s why this bill is such a huge problem.
Here’s a script provided by The 65:
I’m , a constituent who is appalled that the House passed HR.7. Women deserve to make their own medical choices and I want to protect legal access to safe abortion by voting NO on HR.7. I expect my senator to stand up for women’s reproductive rights, and will be watching closely.
As Paula mentioned Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester voted against this bill and, most likely, Senator Carper and Coons will as well. But as we’ve learned, we cannot take anything for granted anymore.
Call our Senators to vote NO on H.R. 7. Call Tom Carper at (202) 224-2441. Call Chris Coons at (202) 224-5042.
OK, just squeaked my calls in before the D.C. offices of Senators Coons and Carper close at 4:30.
In the process of trying to find out where this stands (doesn’t appear to be scheduled yet in the Senate), I discovered https://twitter.com/govtrack, which tweets out “life events” of introduced legislation.
Here’s the e-mail response I got from Carper about my call urging him to oppose Betsy DeVos — OK, we know now that he’s voting against confirmation (I just saw a headline saying that all Democrats will), but this response is a whole lot of nothing specific. I’m guessing he knew last night at 10:23 pm whether he would support her or not — why can’t he say so?
Thank you for contacting me to share your views regarding President Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education. I appreciate hearing from you about this important matter.
If President Trump wants keep his election night promise to be a president for all Americans, he would do well remember the Golden Rule – to treat others as we would wish to be treated. But whether he does this or not, we must continue to fight for our values and our principles. We must do everything we can to ensure that all Americans receive equal protection under the law. While the hard won improvements of the past eight years may face strong political headwinds, they must be vigorously defended. I pledge to do so.
With that said, as a United States Senator, it is my responsibility to consider nominations made by the President of the United States for service in the executive branch. I take seriously my responsibility for vetting these appointments. As each nomination comes before the Senate for a confirmation vote, I will thoroughly examine their background and qualifications. While I must give every nominee fair consideration, I will oppose nominees that do not meet the highest standards expected of those we trust to serve our nation.
Thank you again for contacting me, and please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or other matters of importance to you.
With best personal regards, I am,
Sincerely,
Tom Carper
United States Senator
Paula – notice that this same letter could also be (and probably was) sent to people who support DeVos. That’s the very definition of anodyne.
With a simple search and replace it can be used for every nominee, too. Saves a lot of staff time.