Quigley Takes Action to Protect Abortion Access for Federal Workers

Today, the House passed funding legislation that included U.S. Representative Mike Quigley's (IL-05) provision to protect abortion access for federal workers and the residents of Washington, D.C. Quigley, Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, amended his own legislation to include language that would prohibit any federal funds from his bill from being used in contravention to President Biden's executive order on protecting access to reproductive health care.

"The Supreme Court's appalling decision to revoke the right to an abortion for American women calls for an all-of-government response. We must use every tool at our disposal to protect abortion access for as many women as possible, including utilizing our federal funding process. I offered this amendment to my own funding bill to ensure that the FSGG bill was part of that fight, and that no funding I appropriate can be used to restrict a woman's right to her own body," said Quigley. "This step will not only support President Biden's executive order but also help prevent Republicans from restricting the healthcare options of the residents of D.C. I'll be working with colleagues to make sure this is just one of many measures we pass to protect abortion access for everyone."

Quigley delivered remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives during debate on the amendment.

Video of his remarks is available HERE. His remarks as prepared for delivery are available below:

Last month, as the Appropriations Committee considered the FSGG funding bill, the Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of stripping American women of the constitutional right to decide their own reproductive destiny.

Extremist justices, inventing flimsy arguments against a right that Americans had enjoyed for nearly 50 years, opened the door for radical legislators to ban abortion.

Let me be clear: This is a crisis.

And crises mean that all hands are on deck.

With my friends Representatives Lee, DeGette, and Frankel, I am offering an amendment to ensure that the FSGG bill is in the fight.

This amendment prohibits any federal funds from my bill from being used in contravention to President Biden's executive order on protecting access to reproductive health care.

This is not just about the executive order itself —

It is about the policies and recommendations that will result from it.

The interagency policymaking effort to address barriers to abortion access must include FSGG jurisdiction, and federal agencies must all work to swiftly and fully implement solutions to these barriers.

In addition, FSGG has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia.

Anti-abortion extremists go so far as to try to tell DC taxpayers that they cannot make their own decisions about whether to support access to reproductive care.

I'm here to say today that DC citizens shouldn't be bullied by extremists pushing an ideological agenda.

And the federal government's place must only be to help improve access to care in DC, never to tell the citizens of our nation's capital that members of a body to which they are not even permitted to send a voting representative that they can't look after their reproductive destinies.

President Biden called for a whole-of-government effort to safeguard abortion access.

As the branch of government charged with the purse strings of the United States, it is our duty to join that effort.

I urge support for my amendment, and I yield back.