Modified: 10/10/2006

Washington, DC— Today, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and resident of the 17th Congressional district, issued the following joint statement regarding the Reducing the Need for Abortions and Supporting Parents Act introduced by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-17) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

“Rep. Tim Ryan's bill, which includes a number of proposals to improve women's access to contraception and to support teen-pregnancy-prevention efforts, represents a positive step forward in the debate over legal abortion. Americans are tired of divisive attacks on a woman's right to choose - such as South Dakota's dangerous and severe new abortion ban or Ohio's pending ban which contains no exceptions, not even to save the life of of the woman. Instead, they want lawmakers from both sides of the abortion debate to find commonsense solutions to the problem of unintended pregnancy. Rep. Ryan's bill joins a number of other legislative proposals like Prevention First (Sen. Harry Reid/Rep. Louise Slaughter), the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (Reid/Rep. Nita Lowey), and the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act (Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton/Rep. Steve Rothman), that would reduce the need for abortion by helping couples prevent unintended pregnancy in the first place. These bills, and others like them, are sensible, reasonable proposals with broad public support. The real question is: will congressional anti-choice leaders, and the lobby groups they serve, ever allow them to come up for debate or votes?”

In February 2005, NARAL Pro-Choice America began an ongoing campaign for common ground by issuing a challenge to President Bush and right-to-life organizations to support efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies through medically accurate sex education, better access to birth control, including the “morning-after” pill, and improved family-planning services.