Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, today issued the following statement regarding passage of an amendment to the FY2017 Financial Services & General Government Appropriations bill barring federal or local funds to enforce the District of Columbia’s Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Amendment Act (RHNDA):
“The 2017 Financial Services & General Government Appropriations bill is replete with divisive and ideological poison pill riders spanning the gamut of reproductive rights, foreign policy, the Affordable Care Act, consumer financial protections, and much more.
“But today’s passage of an amendment barring funds to enforce the D.C. Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Amendment Act (RHNDA), is especially spiteful and destructive. RHNDA was passed in 2014 to prevent employers from discriminating against employees - male or female - based on their reproductive health choices.
“District of Columbia residents should not have to worry that their choice to terminate a pregnancy, to use in vitro fertilization to conceive a child, or even to use contraception, will result in their being fired or denied a job. Under the guise of “religious liberty," this amendment is an unprecedented intrusion into D.C. residents’ personal health choices, and cannot be a part of any final Appropriations law."
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
