Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus, today released the following statement on HR 358, the so-called Protect Life Act.
Among other things, the bill would allow hospitals to turn away women in need of medical treatment in a practice referred to as "patient dumping," an extreme provision opposed by the Catholic Health Association.
"Despite objections from even those religiously opposed to abortion, and despite the urgent need to put Americans back to work, the Republican Majority has chosen, of their own free volition and will, to attack the Constitutional freedoms of women. The bill today is one of the biggest invasions into the private lives of Americans that our nation has ever seen. If this draconian piece of legislation were to become law, a woman could bleed to death in a hospital without being treated. These are the priorities of the Republican Majority but clearly not the priorities of the American people."