Bill Would Make DC the Nation’s Abortion Capital
WASHINGTON – At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson, joined by nine other members of the Council of the District of Columbia, has introduced a bill that would put the health and safety of women in the District in danger. According to Councilmember Henderson’s Statement of Introduction, the so-called “Enhancing Reproductive Health Protections Amendment Act of 2022,” (BR24-0726) seeks to “protect” women by shielding those who “provide, dispense, or transfer any product used for self-managed abortion” from any penalties.
In response to the bill’s introduction, the DC Metro Life Alliance, the District affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, released the following statement:
Instead of protecting the most vulnerable women and children in the District of Columbia, the so-called “Enhancing Reproductive Health Protections Amendment Act” will put them in harm’s way.
It’s a disgrace to our nation’s capital. With this bill, Councilmember Henderson and the nine councilmembers joining her are offering immunity from liability to those who would pressure, intimidate, coerce, and compel a woman to have an abortion. They have chosen to make DC’s mothers – and especially women of color and women with lower incomes – more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
DC is not immune to the destruction and pain cause by the issue of abortion. Last October the District was horrified to learn that for decades, top brass at DC Metropolitan Police District forced pregnant cadets to abort their children or risk losing their jobs. Today, the Council has offered up a bill that would shield that kind of reprehensible behavior from legal liability, leaving our best and brightest like Assistant Chief Chanel Dickerson and officer Karen Arikpo to suffer in silence.
Just last week the remains of five aborted children were discovered in a Capitol Hill home leaving questions as to whether federal laws protecting unborn babies from partial-birth abortion were violated and what, if anything, was done to protect infants who may have survived an attempted abortion. We should all be horrified by such callous disregard for human life, but instead, the Council offers a bill that would protect this kind of senseless butchering in the name of “enhancing health.”
As other states pass laws seeking to reduce the number of abortions in their jurisdictions, it seems clear that the DC Council is simply trying to build up their credibility with the abortion industry by moving in the opposite direction, ensuring that the Nation’s Capital becomes the Nation’s Abortion Capital.
District law currently allows virtually unrestricted abortion. Our city is one of the most permissive jurisdictions in the U.S. for abortionists. This “protection” is a shield against a danger that doesn’t exist.
This bill is more than just unnecessary and bad governance. It creates a nightmare loophole that allows bad actors to escape legal liability simply by claiming that they were assisting a self-managed abortion. Finally, it fails to address – or even recognize – the very real dangers involved with self-managed chemical abortions, and absolves the prescribing abortionist of any liability should a woman experience life-threatening complications.
Why would the DC Council choose to make our city a safe haven for human traffickers and sex abusers, who are known to coerce their victims into having abortions against their will? Why would the DC Council make it easier for bad bosses, husbands, boyfriends, and exes to pressure women into aborting their unborn children? Why would the DC Council put the health and safety of the billion-dollar abortion industry above that of DC residents and visitors – particularly our Black and Latino communities who are specifically targeted by the abortion industry? Who exactly is the DC Council working for anyway?
By embracing a radical pro-abortion agenda, ten members of the DC Council are sending a clear message: the financial bottom line of their abortion industry allies is more important than the health and safety of women in the District.