Norton to Testify on Abortion Bill and Calls Vote on the Anti-Home-Rule, Anti-Choice Bill an Amplification of the GOP War on Women

WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that Norton will testify on H.R. 7 at a House Rules Committee meeting on Monday, January 27, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. in H-313 The Capitol, and will offer an amendment to strike a provision that would permanently prohibit only the District of Columbia from spending its local funds on abortion services for low-income women, and would define the D.C. government as part of the federal government for the purposes of abortion. The bill is expected to go to the House floor on Tuesday or Wednesday. In addition to the D.C.-only provision, the bill contains other provisions Norton strongly opposes, including restricting women's access to abortion coverage in the private insurance marketplace. Norton said that the GOP's swift move to bring H.R. 7 to the floor for a vote next week, "amps up their War on Women II," which was kicked off at the bill's Judiciary Committee markup last week. The speed this year at which the subcommittee hearing on the bill was held, followed by a full committee markup, and, now, the upcoming floor vote, is, Norton said, "rare and demonstrates the priority House Republicans have placed on stripping women of their reproductive rights." Norton was denied the traditional congressional courtesy to testify on a provision targeting her district by Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ), Chair of the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, at the Subcommittee hearing on H.R. 7 earlier this month, before an all-male panel. While the bill is expected to pass the House, as it did last Congress, Norton will continue to work with her Senate colleagues to again defeat it.

"House Republican priorities going into 2014 could not be any clearer," said Norton. "Are they interested in reviving unemployment insurance? No. Are they focused on strengthening the economy? No. How about immigration reform? No, sir. Instead, they are rushing to the floor with rarely seen fervor to strip American women of their reproductive rights and to usurp D.C.'s right to self-governance. They expect a fight, and they are going to get it."

Published: January 23, 2014