Planned Parenthood calls on Senate to Reject Cornyn Amendment in Human Trafficking Bill
For Immediate Release: April 14, 2015
Statement from Cecile Richards, President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:
“What victims of human trafficking need is access to health services and other support, not the accounting gimmick that Senator John Cornyn has offered. His relentless effort to use the trafficking bill to advance an ideological agenda to limit access to abortion is part of a broader agenda that we are seeing all over the country at the state and now federal level. Americans agree – politicians shouldn’t be involved in women’s health care decisions. What’s most troubling is that a measure that was intended to help survivors of human trafficking is now being used to hurt them. We call on the Senate to reject this amendment and any other attempts by Senator Cornyn and his allies to interfere in a woman’s personal health care decisions. These women need compassion and support – not barriers, condemnation and shame.”
On Background:
Senator Cornyn is offering an alternative that still expands Hyde, would apply Hyde restrictions to a new population of women and is part of a broader agenda to interfere in women’s personal health care decisions.
Anti-women’s health members of Congress have introduced nearly 30 measures this year to restrict access to safe and legal abortion. This is part of a coordinated effort that is playing out in state legislatures across the country – with more than 240 restrictions passing since 2011. It’s this type of agenda that has shuttered access to safe and legal abortion across the South and in Senator Cornyn’s home state of Texas.