White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Thursday that President Joe Biden supports the pro-abortion Equality Act, a bill that pro-life leaders warn would create a “right to demand an abortion.”
During the daily White House press conference, a reporter asked Psaki about Biden’s promise to sign the Equality Act during his first 100 days in office, according to the Catholic News Agency.
“He stands by it,” she answered, while emphasizing that Congress must pass the bill before Biden can act. “We have 85 days to go.”
National Right to Life and other leading pro-life organizations have been warning about the bill and its devastating impact on unborn babies, taxpayers, religious medical facilities and health care workers for years.
On the surface, the goal of the Equity Act supposedly is to protect people from discrimination. It redefines sex discrimination in federal law to include gender identity and sexual orientation, the report states.
But according to National Right to Life, the legislation could be used to force medical workers to abort unborn babies and force taxpayers to pay for them.
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It “contains language amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that could be construed to create a right to demand abortion from health care providers, and likely would place at risk the authority of state and federal government to prohibit taxpayer-funded abortions. If enacted, this legislation could be used as a powerful tool to challenge any and all state abortion restrictions,” the pro-life organization said last year.
Pro-abortion Democrats in Congress have been trying to pass the bill for years, but pro-life U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, has been a leading advocate against the extreme measure.
He explained the problematic language in detail:
H.R. 5 defines “sex” to include “pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.” The term “related medical condition” means “abortion.” In the case Doe v. C.A.R.S., the Third Circuit stated, “We now hold that the term “related medical conditions” includes an abortion.”[1] Furthermore, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces Title VII, interprets abortion to be covered as a “related medical condition.”[2]
To further clarify, the bill goes on to state:
(b): Rules.—In a covered title referred to in subsection (a)—“(1) (with respect to sex) pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition shall not receive less favorable treatment than other physical conditions;…
In other words, a provider may not withhold a “treatment option,” including ending the life of an unborn baby.
Terry Schilling, executive director at American Principles Project, recently pointed out that Vice President Kamala Harris sponsored the radical legislation when she was a senator.
“Catholic hospitals must bend the knee to Harris’s radical ideology or be shut down. Catholic doctors whose faith prohibits them from facilitating abortions, sterilizations, or sex changes must be forced to comply,” Schilling wrote in August at The Federalist.
Biden included the Equality Act as a top legislative priority for his first 100 days in office on his campaign website.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, March for Life Action and other pro-life groups also are urging lawmakers to reject the bill.
