Pro-life citizens will join together in support of June Medical Services v. Russo, a Louisiana law that requires abortionists, like doctors at all Louisiana outpatient surgical centers, to maintain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The measure was enacted to ensure that women who experience a medical emergency during an abortion have access to proper care.

Remarkably, the bill’s fiercest opponent has been the abortion industry, with abortion doctors asking for exemptions from the law’s requirements.

“Abortion providers shouldn’t be able to erase a law that protects women’s health,” says Penny Nance, CEO and president of CWA. “There is no reason women seeking abortions should be treated with lower standards of medical care than other out-patient surgery centers. That’s why I, and hundreds of thousands of women I represent, stand in support of the women of Louisiana.”

Sancha Smith, a member of CWA of Louisiana, says being pro-life necessarily extends to protecting the life of a woman who chooses to have an abortion. “We cannot say all life is important and ignore the threat posed to women by an abortion procedure. I do not understand how the pro-choice lobby can claim to stand for women’s health while working for this bill to be overturned.”

The “Protect Women – Protect Life” pre-rally event will kick off at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday with a time for women to share their stories. The rally will formally begin at 9:30 a.m. and will end at 11:30 a.m.

For more information, please visit: https://www.protectwomenprotectlife.org/

Media: email press@thekcompany.co or tdelancey@cwfa.org or call 202.810.5530 or 202.527.3434

Below are Penny Nance’s prepared remarks to be delivered at the rally Wednesday:

“Hello everyone, thank you for coming out today and standing up for vulnerable women. As the CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), the largest public policy organization for women in the nation, my heart breaks as I consider the abortion industry’s treatment of women and their children. It used to be that some supported a right to abortion as a sort of weapon of last resort—a necessary evil. Remember the whole, ‘safe, legal and rare’ mantra?

“Those days are long gone. These days their message is that abortion should be legal for any reason, any number, at any point in gestation, all paid for by the taxpayer.

“Consider the arguments going on inside this Court right now. They are fighting against a law seeking to ensure that the ‘doctor’ performing an abortion has both the ability and the expectation to follow up with a patient after serious complications from the procedure. Our friends on the other side should be fighting for such a law if they truly care about women!

“But most of them don’t. The abortion industry is about the mighty dollar. Abortions are the priority, not women.

“In fact, they ignore women, when it doesn’t suit their narrative. The vast majority of women support laws like the one in this case. According to a Knights of Columbus-Marist poll, 70 percent of Americans want doctors who perform abortions to be required to have hospital admitting privileges. This includes 71 percent of women.[1]

“And by the way, the numbers do not change on this issue. Pro-life and pro-choice women support laws like Louisiana’s equally.

“Which is why these laws are not usually challenged by women. They are challenged by abortionists trying to protect their business interests. It is a shameful fact that the Court has ignored for far too long.

“We are here to make sure the Court hears our voices. We are asking them to stop allowing abortion businesses to challenge the common-sense laws we pass. The hundreds of thousands of women of Concerned Women for America stand with the people of Louisiana. We stand with the women of Louisiana! The Court should too.”

[1] https://www.kofc.org/en/news/polls/poll_americans-support-abortion-restrictions.html

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