WASHINGTON, DC— Congressman Eliot L. Engel, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, released the following statement on the House passage of the Conscience Protection Act of 2016:
“The Conscience Protection Act is the latest in a long line of Republican attempts to interfere with women’s autonomy and medical care.
“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve come to the floor during this Congress to defend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions – a concept that, frankly, shouldn’t need a defense at all.
“My Republican colleagues are marketing this bill as one that would protect ‘conscience rights.’ But let’s be clear: current law already allows health professionals to object to providing abortions for moral or religious reasons. The Conscience Protection Act would take this concept to a new extreme, expanding opportunities for employers to discriminate against women based on their reproductive health choices.
“We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: women’s personal health care decisions are not their bosses’ business. Every patient should be able to make fully-informed decisions about her health care, without interference from her employer, and certainly without interference from Congress. That’s why I voted against this senseless attack on American women.”
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Please note this press release was originally published on July 14, 2016 by Congressman Engel’s House of Representative’s office and posted to this website no sooner than 72 hours after initial publication.