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Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 3495 - Women's Public Health and Safety Act

September 28, 2015


STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY

(House Rules)

(Rep. Duffy, R-WI, and 16 cosponsors)

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 3495 because it would restrict women's health and reproductive choices.

H.R. 3495 would permit a State Medicaid program to stop paying for any covered benefits provided to eligible individuals by qualified health care providers solely because those providers were involved in abortions. Longstanding Federal policy already prohibits the use of Federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the woman would be endangered. By permitting the withholding of Federal Medicaid funding for such providers, clinics, or hospitals, H.R. 3495 likely would limit access to both critical women's health services and health care throughout local communities across the Nation, and would have a disproportionate impact on women and low-income individuals. Moreover, it would undermine a woman's right, upheld by the Supreme Court, to make her own choices about her body and her health care.

If the President were presented with H.R. 3495, he would veto the bill.

Barack Obama, Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 3495 - Women's Public Health and Safety Act Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/312063

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