Norton Applauds Launch of National ‘We Are DC’ Campaign

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today applauded the launch of a national campaign, "We Are DC," to raise awareness and mobilize nationwide support for protecting the reproductive rights of the District of Columbia's women from federal interference. The campaign – led by Advocates for Youth, Black Women's Health Imperative, Center for Reproductive Rights, ChoiceUSA, DC Abortion Fund, DC Vote, National Women's Law Center, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and Reproductive Health Technologies Project – has already begun mobilizing activists and collecting pictures of people from around the county with signs reading "We Are DC" and their state and city. The photographs will be posted to social media outlets, including the campaign's blog, and delivered to members of Congress to show them that their own constituents support D.C women's fight for equal reproductive rights.

"I am thrilled that the grassroots We Are DC campaign is joining the effort to combat congressional intrusion into D.C. women's reproductive rights," said Norton. "This new effort puts the pro-choice community on the offensive, as State Senator Wendy Davis did in the recent filibuster in Texas. National pro-choice advocates understand that D.C. women, families and physicians are being targeted for only one reason. We are being used and our self-government rights abused because our residents strongly support a woman's right to choose concerning private matters affecting her body. All prohibitions on D.C.'s use of its local funds have been eliminated from our appropriations except the ban on spending our city's own funds for abortions for low-income women. The fight for choice for residents of the nation's capital is a major plank in the fight to protect Roe v. Wade and the reproductive rights it guarantees to American women. We Are DC and D.C. will be there with our pro-choice allies to help women spread the word that D.C. is a major battleground for choice for American women today."

While the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion services for low-income women is restricted under the Hyde amendment, states have always been permitted to provide state or local funding for abortion services.

In just the first six months of the 113th Congress, there have already been significant attacks on D.C. women's reproductive rights. Norton and her pro-choice allies have fought back with some success. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) reintroduced his bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columba, after filing an amendment to the Senate budget resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress should pass such a bill. The Lee bill has not moved in the Senate, and the amendment did not receive a vote. Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) reintroduced his companion D.C. abortion ban bill, which was defeated on the House floor last Congress. After he reintroduced it, he expanded it to a nationwide ban, which is a victory for home rule but not for nationwide reproductive choice. No action has been taken yet on a bill reintroduced by Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), which would, among other things, make permanent law the annual rider that prohibits the District from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women. This bill passed the House last Congress, but was not taken up in the Senate.

Published: July 2, 2013