Statement by Nancy Northup, President, Center for Reproductive Rights

New York – The Center for Reproductive Rights salutes both the California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) for filing lawsuits against the Weldon amendment – the anti-choice provision recently placed in a 2005 federal spending bill. These two challenges will expose the devastating effects of this misleading measure on women across the country – a reduction in available health care options for women, and a harmful reversal of longstanding state and federal protections for women’s reproductive rights. This law is so far-reaching that * Hospital emergency rooms could refuse to perform abortions, even in emergency situations when the procedure is necessary to save a woman’s life.
* Federally-funded clinics will be allowed to withhold medical information from female patients even when that information can help them make a decision about their health care.
* State governments will only be able to ensure that abortion services are available to women at public facilities in their state if they forgo receiving vital federal funds – something they cannot practically do. The federal government should not be hobbling the efforts of state governments to make abortion services available to eligible residents.Learn more about information about the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) lawsuit, please visit their website.