WASHINGTON DC – U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) joined more than 40 of her Senate colleagues in a letter urging Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) to reject the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ policy provisions that House Republicans inserted into their appropriations bills. These extreme, partisan agenda items have no place in critical spending bills that require broad, bipartisan consensus to pass and keep the government open.
“The Senate has had tremendous success both passing bipartisan bills in committee and on the Senate floor because these bills are free of new poison pill riders,” wrote the Senators. “Unfortunately, the House appropriations bills are filled with new highly partisan provisions, including anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ riders, that should be removed from any final appropriations bills.”
“Our country is facing a reproductive health care crisis, one that has been accelerated by the Supreme Court’s extremist decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” the Senators’ letter states. “House Republicans have proposed several new anti-abortion policy riders. These riders include a provision to force back in place medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion, a measure to stop the implementation of the Biden administration’s executive orders to protect access to abortion care, and a measure that would jeopardize access to essential postgraduate medical training in abortion care.”
“At the same time, House Republicans have used the appropriations process to push extremist anti-LGBTQ+ measures, which threaten to disrupt the lives and fundamental dignity of the LGBTQ+ community,” the letter continues. “Against this backdrop, House Republicans have introduced more than 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions across all 12 appropriations bills. These provisions include those allowing the government to discriminate against married same-sex couples as well as language to prevent the administration from enforcing laws to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination.”
Full letter can be found HERE.
Senator Rosen has been a leader in the fight against efforts to restrict access to abortion in Nevada and nationwide. Senator Rosen helped introduce the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act to protect doctors and other health care professionals from being prosecuted for providing reproductive care to their patients. Rosen also helped introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine Roe v. Wade in federal law. Senator Rosen has also been a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. Earlier this year, Senator Rosen helped introduce the Equality Act to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans. Last Congress, she helped pass the historic, bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act to require states to recognize all marriages legally performed in other states.
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