Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) led her House colleagues in re-introducing the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act, along with U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Diana DeGette (C0-1), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Norma Torres (CA-35) and U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).
“As MAGA extremists unleash their assault on women’s rights, it is imperative to ensure reproductive health care for all,” said Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland. “The Helms Amendment makes it impossible for millions of women across the globe to seek reproductive care – including routine preventative screenings – barring economic mobility and worsening the maternal health crisis. I am introducing the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act with Representative Schakowsky and over 140 of my colleagues today to repeal Helms, ensure equality, and continue the fight for women’s rights worldwide.”
“For nearly 50 years, the racist, harmful Helms Amendment has barred U.S. foreign assistance from being used to offer abortion care, even in countries where abortions are legal. The United States should not stand in the way of health care and bodily autonomy in other countries. Developing countries bear the burden of 97% of all unsafe abortions. We must protect women’s health around the globe. By singling out abortion as a restricted health service, the Helms Amendment reinforces efforts to criminalize abortion and heightens abortion-related stigma,” said Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. “I am proud to reintroduce the bicameral Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act with Senator Booker and Representatives Lee, DeGette, and Torres. Comprehensive reproductive health care, including safe, legal, and accessible abortion, is a human right.”
The Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act would repeal the 1973 Helms Amendment to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act. This would ensure that U.S. foreign assistance may be used to provide the full scope of comprehensive health care, including access to safe and legal abortion services. The bill also includes language clarifying that under U.S. government policy, safe abortion care is a critical component of comprehensive maternal and reproductive care. In addition to the co-leads, the bill has 142 original cosponsors in the House.
The Helms Amendment endangers lives by prohibiting U.S. foreign assistance from being used for “the performance of abortion as a method of family planning” abroad. There are exceptions to the Helms Amendment, allowing for U.S. foreign assistance to provide abortion care in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment, but in practice, Helms has been wrongly applied as a total ban on U.S. foreign aid being used to provide abortion care under any circumstance — even providing information or counseling on abortion, which is legal, is not occurring in many places around the world. According to research by the Guttmacher Institute, repealing the Helms Amendment would lead to 19 million fewer unsafe abortions and 17,000 fewer maternal deaths each year.
U.S. Representative Marilyn Strickland serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She is the Congressional Black Caucus whip, a member of the New Democrat Coalition, one of the first Korean-American women elected to Congress, and the first African-American elected to represent the Pacific Northwest at the federal level.
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