On September 24, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) delivered the following remarks on the House floor in support of the Women's Health Protection Act:
"For 48 years the right to choose has been the law of the land, and it is time that Congress protects that right and access to the full range of reproductive care. States are passing dangerous bans on abortion that harm patients and criminalize doctors, and anti-choice legislators are erecting barriers that are ever more onerous for women. This has even happened in my home state of New Hampshire where the legislature passed an abortion ban and forced ultrasounds for women seeking an abortion. If the Supreme Court won't protect Roe, Congress must pass the Women's Health Protection Act."
Amid a dangerous assault on basic health freedoms – from the state house in New Hampshire to the U.S. Supreme Court – this landmark legislation enshrines into law the vital protections of Roe v. Wade and secures the right to reproductive care for everyone across America.
Congressman Pappas is an original cosponsor of the Women's Health Protection Act, which codifies the constitutional right to abortion care as found in Roe and reaffirmed in many subsequent decisions for nearly half a century. It establishes the federal statutory right for health care providers to offer abortion care and the federal right for patients to receive that care, free from state restrictions. Enshrining these essential rights is also an issue of racial and economic justice, as restrictions on reproductive care disproportionately harm people of color and those from low-income communities and perpetuate long-standing inequities.
Background:
In July, Representatives Chris Pappas (NH-01) and Annie Kuster (NH-02) urged Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to support family planning services and health providers in New Hampshire who may be negatively impacted as a result of the biennial state budget signed into law June 25, 2021. The state budget enacts harmful restrictions on health services and creates a challenging fiscal environment for family planning providers across the state.
In September, Pappas, alongside the New Hampshire delegation, called on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to explore all available means to provide immediate support to impacted family planning providers in New Hampshire following the New Hampshire Executive Council's vote to defund family planning providers. Pappas also joined the New Hampshire delegation in calling on the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue immediate approval of a rule change to reverse the Title X Gag Rule that decimated federal funding for the majority of New Hampshire's family planning centers, including Planned Parenthood.
Last week, Pappas joined a bicameral amicus brief in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, urging the Supreme Court to uphold nearly 50 years of precedent in Roe v. Wade and protect the constitutional right to abortion care.
Original source can be found here.
