July 24, 2022

See How Members of PA's "Freedom Party" Respect Your Freedom!

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Let's start with this Huffpost piece:

In the past week alone, House Republicans have overwhelmingly voted against a woman’s right to travel for abortion care, to access birth control and to marry someone they love.

Each of these votes was appalling in its own right.

When the House voted last week to ensure that women are able to travel across state lines for an abortion, 205 Republicans voted no. When the House voted Tuesday to codify same-sex marriage, 157 Republicans voted no. On Thursday, when the House voted to protect women’s right to access birth control and other contraception, 195 Republicans voted no.

So let's go see how those votes reflect the freedom loving House members from PA. 

Crossing State Lines 

This is HR 8297. And this is the Congres.gov's summary:

This bill prohibits anyone acting under state law from interfering with a person's ability to access out-of-state abortion services. (Abortion services includes the use of any drugs that are approved to terminate pregnancies and any health care services related to an abortion, whether or not provided at the same time or on the same day.)

Specifically, the bill prohibits any person acting under state law from preventing, restricting, impeding, or retaliating against

  • health care providers who provide legal abortion services to out-of-state residents,
  • any person or entity who helps health care providers to provide such services,
  • any person who travels to another state to obtain such services,
  • any person or entity who helps another person travel to another state to obtain such services, or
  • the movement in interstate commerce of drugs that are approved to terminate pregnancies.

The Department of Justice may enforce this bill through civil actions; the bill also establishes a private right of action for violations.

205 Republicans voted against this. From Pennsylvania, they were:

Marriage Equality 

This is HR 8404.

And this is the Congres.gov's summary:

This bill provides statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages.

Specifically, the bill repeals and replaces provisions that define, for purposes of federal law, marriage as between a man and a woman and spouse as a person of the opposite sex with provisions that recognize any marriage that is valid under state law. (The Supreme Court held that the current provisions were unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor in 2013.)

The bill also repeals and replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin. (The Supreme Court held that state laws barring same-sex marriages were unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015; the Court held that state laws barring interracial marriages were unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia in 1967.) The bill allows the Department of Justice to bring a civil action and establishes a private right of action for violations.

157 Republicans voted against this. From Pennsylvania, they were:

Contraception

This is  HR 8373. And this is from the legislation itself:

To protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.

 195 Republicans voted against this. From Pennsylvania, they were:

So tell me again how the Freedom Party is respecting freedom?

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