Planned Parenthood, NARAL Announce They Will ‘Score’ Vote on Senator Lee’s D.C. Abortion Ban Amendment, Highlighting Nationwide Implications of Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today called to thank Ilyse Hogue and Cecile Richards, the presidents of NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, respectively, after their groups informed Senators that they intend to "score" a vote on Senator Mike Lee's (R-UT) amendment (252) to the Senate's budget resolution that expresses the Sense of the Senate that Congress should pass legislation banning abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The organizations decided to score the vote without prompting by Norton, an indication that pro-choice groups do not intend to leave D.C. to special interests that use the city's women as part of their national agenda. Last Congress, both groups led a coalition that helped Norton defeat Representative Trent Franks' (R-AZ) 20-week D.C. abortion ban bill (H.R. 3803) by scoring the House vote on the bill.

"From the day in January 2012 when the National Right to Life Committee announced that the 20-week D.C. abortion ban bill was its top legislative priority," Norton said, "D.C.'s women were on the front lines of a nationwide effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. The unenforceable Lee Sense of the Senate resolution, which is similar to a bill that was defeated in the House and introduced by Lee in the Senate, is either a last gasp or a signal of an attempted resurrection of the defeated House bill. Either way, we are ready for the opponents of women's reproductive rights. The District's women refuse to be used as a vehicle for Republicans and special interest groups to get a federal imprimatur for their agenda. As the scoring by Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America shows, targeting D.C.'s women will provoke a response from women nationwide." Groups make voting recommendations to members of Congress on key bills affecting their members. They then compile annual scorecards based on these key votes to inform their members and the general public on where members of Congress stand.

Last Congress, Lee, a strong Tea Party advocate for small and local government, nevertheless introduced a 20-week D.C. abortion ban bill (which did not receive a hearing or vote) and filed a 20-week D.C. abortion ban amendment to a cybersecurity bill. In her letter urging Senators to vote against the Lee amendment, Norton wrote: "In keeping with our root principles of local control and democracy, Congress delegated its legislative authority over the District of Columbia to an elected local government in 1973, except for a small number of enumerated exceptions. The right to an abortion was not among those exceptions. This issue is a matter for the local elected officials to decide, not Senators, who are unaccountable to District residents….Moreover, the District's abortion laws are not unique. Nine states do not restrict abortions after a certain point in pregnancy. If this amendment were principled, it would be applied either nationwide or to those nine states as well. We ask only that you respect the American citizens who are responsible for this city's local laws, as you would demand for your own local constituents."