Testimony of Physicians’ Jodi Magee Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, March 15, 2016
CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
President and CEO, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Jodi Magee
Senate Judiciary Committee
March 15, 2016
Despite widespread public disagreement, anti-choice members of Congress continue to introduce legislation restricting access to abortion and doctors’ ability to provide patients with the highest level of care. On Tuesday, Physicians’ Jodi Magee testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC, to express Physicians’ strong opposition to these abortion bans.
Magee was joined by Dr. Diana Greene Foster, of the University of California-San Francisco and Ms. Christy Zink, a mother of two, in testifying against the bans at the hearing. The hearing was reported on widely by news outlets like Politico and MSNBC, and coverage highlighted the statements by pro-choice Senators who took to the floor Tuesday to decry the proposed bans as the latest step in a long line of attacks to “turn back the clock on women’s health care”.
Hearing: Late-Term Abortion: Protecting Babies Born Alive and Capable of Feeling Pain
FROM THE TESTIMONY
Jodi Magee
My name is Jodi Magee and I am the President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. Physicians for Reproductive Health is a doctor-led national not-for-profit organization that uses evidence-based medicine to promote sound reproductive health policies. We were founded in 1992 by a small committee of concerned physicians who believed that doctors have a public health responsibility to speak out in support of reproductive health care, including access to abortion and contraception.
In recent years, those who would limit the rights of women to safely access a legal medical procedure have successfully passed hundreds of restrictions on abortion; some under the guise of protecting women, but all designed in reality to limit women’s access to safe and legal services. These laws try to shame, pressure, and punish a woman who has decided to have an abortion. The doctors in our organization believe that women deserve better.
All patients deserve dignified, compassionate, and appropriate medical care. Every woman faces her own unique circumstances, challenges, and potential complications. She must be able to make medical decisions based on her doctor’s advice and what is right for herself and her family – without interference from politicians.
Physicians for Reproductive Health welcomes the opportunity to submit testimony on proposed legislation related to this hearing. Make no mistake; the legislation we are discussing represents another attempt to make it impossible for women to access abortion. Because politicians know that the public and major medical groups do not support this position, they are disingenuously presenting these restrictions as only applying to very limited situations. But let us be clear: this is part and parcel of a concerted effort to intrude on the personal health care decisions that belong to a woman and her physician.