House Passes Bill that Denies Women Emergency Abortion Services

Interview with Sarah Lipton-Lubet, policy counsel, American Civil Liberties Union, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed another in a series of anti-abortion bills that has been characterized by women's and civil liberties groups as one of the most extreme yet from the Republican-controlled body. The measure would allow hospitals to deny life-saving care to women in need of emergency abortion services. It would also deny women insurance coverage for abortion services under the new health care system, taking away insurance coverage that millions of women already have. According to the American Journal of Public Health, Catholic hospitals already have a history of ignoring their obligation to provide emergency care that may involve performing abortions. In 1979, an Arizona bishop excommunicated a nun who authorized an abortion procedure for a woman who otherwise might have died of pulmonary hypertension at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix.

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