House Committee Refuses to Allow Floor Vote on Norton Amendment Exempting D.C. from National Anti-Choice Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee today refused to make in order Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-DC) amendment to strike the provision making the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017 (H.R. 7) applicable to the District of Columbia. By refusing to make her amendment in order, Norton said Republicans hoped to avoid a floor debate and vote on their attack on a local jurisdiction, violating their mantra of local control over local affairs. Norton thanked her colleagues Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Scott Peters (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Judy Chu (D-CA) for cosponsoring her amendment. H.R. 7, which will be on the House floor tomorrow, permanently prohibits the District from spending its local funds that have been approved by Congress on abortion services for low-income women. The bill also permanently bans federal funding for abortion, prohibits D.C. and federal government employees from providing abortions, prohibits abortions in D.C. and federal government facilities, and defines the D.C. government as part of the federal government for purposes of abortion.

"The congressional attack on the constitutionally-protected reproductive rights of women in the District and throughout the nation is always timed with the annual March for Life," Norton said. "Republicans did not make my amendment to exempt D.C. from this national anti-choice bill in order because they are afraid of an open debate about their abuse of federal power by uniquely intruding into the District's purely local affairs."