Catholics for Choice aims for federal legislation

Faith-based group pushing for statutory protections to shield abortion access

(At the March for Life this year, Catholics for Choice projected this on the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.)

Shannon Russell, a director of policy at Catholics for Choice, said the main legislative priority for their organization was the Women’s Health Protection Act, which was rewritten in recent years to establish a statutory right to an abortion. That law would forbid popular antiabortion legislation at the state level like ultrasound requirements and waiting periods.

Additionally, they are pushing for the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act, which would end the Hyde Amendment that forbids Medicaid-funded abortions. It also would ensure that federal health plans cover abortion costs.

“So for a long time those have been our federal priorities,” Russell said. “But with Roe on the line at the court, we've been investigating a lot of other types of legislative vehicles.”

While Congress may be able to do little in the immediate aftermath, some things like the Equal Rights Amendment may be a revived goal for feminists.

In other news with the organization, they recently provoked outrage at the annual March of Life, where they projected facts about the frequency with which Catholics had abortions on the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The most interesting one they projected is that one in four abortion patients is Catholic.

“I think that people found it controversial to be projecting those things on the Basilica,” Russell said. “But really, they're just facts.”