opinion

Stop blocking passage of pro-choice legislation

Senators should be working together to pass a bill that helps survivors of trafficking without language that prevents these women from making their own reproductive health care decisions at this critical time in their lives.

This is an incredibly important bill designed to protect women and girls from what could be considered modern-day slavery. It’s ironic and disgusting that anti-choice lawmakers would prevent passage by imposing restrictions that actually curtail those same women’s freedoms.

To imagine that these women have a chance at regaining control of their lives without access to full health care and the option to terminate pregnancy is laughable.

Sex trafficking victims are subject to some of the most deplorable situations imaginable. Eighty percent of them report being pregnant at least once in their time being trafficked; 20 percent report being pregnant five or more times.

Anti-choice politicians treat every bill as an opportunity to chip away at reproductive rights, with the goal of banning abortion. This latest move shows just where these lawmakers’ priorities lie.

Americans want these women to be treated fairly and have the best opportunity to get their lives on track, not to be treated as political footballs in an effort to fulfill an ideological agenda.

Laurie Lanni

Salem