FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chrissy Faessen / [email protected] /c 703.828.7769 Women’s Health Advocates Thank Senators for Putting the Reproductive Health Needs of Trafficking Survivors above Politics Washington D.C. (April 21, 2015) –Today, women’s health advocates applauded Senate champions for resisting expansions of abortion restrictions as they passed a bi-partisan antihuman trafficking bill. After standing strong for nearly two months, the pro-choice champions in the Senate negotiated and agreed to a Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act that would not expand abortion funding restrictions. “We applaud pro-choice senators for taking a stand for women struggling to get by, rejecting the abortion restriction in the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. The decision to have an abortion is sacred and personal, and is best left to a woman to make in conversation with her family, her doctor, and her faith,” said Rev. Harry F. Knox, President/CEO at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “This attempt to add survivors of human trafficking to the long list of those targeted with abortion funding and coverage bans was a shameless ploy to score political points. We’re encouraged that members of the Senate understood the alarming consequences of adding these restrictions to the JVTA and fought against them,” added Jessica González-Rojas, Executive Director for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. “Abortion coverage and funding restrictions already prevent too many people, including many Latinas, from getting the reproductive health care we need.” Attaching restrictions on abortion coverage and funding to key legislation is clearly a top priority for anti-abortion politicians. These restrictions expand the reach of the Hyde Amendment, which denies low-income women coverage for abortion care. Coverage and funding restrictions tied to abortion have already been voted on several times in the House with the passage of H.R. 7 the “No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act”, and the Student Success Act, while both chambers included restrictions on abortion funding in “Doc Fix” legislation. “We thank our champions in the Senate for resisting attempts to add an abortion funding restriction to the JVTA. Every woman should to be able to consider all of her reproductive health options, however little money she has. We hope this has been a wake-up call for the American public that some politicians will stop at nothing to interfere with a woman’s personal decision-making,” commented Jessica Arons, President and CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. Since the passage of the Hyde amendment in 1976, Congress has withheld coverage for abortion services from millions of women qualified and enrolled in the Medicaid program. Restrictions have also been placed on: federal employees, Members of the Military, Peace Corps Volunteers, women in detention centers and federal prisons, those covered through Indian Health Services and residents of the District of Columbia. ### About All* Above All All* Above All unites organizations and individuals to build support for lifting bans that deny abortion coverage. Our vision is to restore public insurance coverage so that every woman, however much she makes, can get affordable, safe abortion care when she needs it. www.facebook.com/allaboveall or www.allaboveall.org