Press Release: 7/2/2025

Pressley, DeGette File Amendment to Big, Ugly Bill to Protect and Expand Reproductive Healthcare

 



Amendment Would Strip Republican Provisions Defunding Planned Parenthood and Essential Care, and Replace It with Bill to Repeal Hyde Amendment



Amendment Text (PDF)



WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-01), Co-Chairs of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, filed an amendment to Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill to protect and expand reproductive healthcare.



The amendment would strip the bill’s language prohibiting Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood and other essential reproductive healthcare providers, and replace it with the text of the EACH Act, bold legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment and lift unjust abortion coverage restrictions for those who depend on Medicaid and other government-sponsored plans.




“Trump and Republicans are doing everything they can to attack Planned Parenthood and other essential healthcare providers as part of their extremist march toward a nationwide abortion ban—and their Big, Ugly Bill is just the latest example of that,” said Congresswomen Pressley and DeGette, Co-Chairs of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus. “While we fight to stop this bill in its tracks, our amendment would protect Planned Parenthood while helping ensure everyone in America can get the reproductive healthcare they need, regardless of income, insurance, or zip code.”




Full text of the amendment is available here.



Congresswoman Pressley has been an outspoken critic of this harmful legislation since its inception.




  • Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Senate’s passage of the Big, Ugly Bill and vowing to continue fighting it using every tool available.

  • Ahead of the third anniversary if the Dobbs decision, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues stood in solidarity with Planned Parenthood and condemned the proposed cuts to reproductive healthcare under Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill.

  • Rep. Pressley and author Darrick Hamilton authored a Washington Post op-ed in which they discussed the regressive, ineffective “Trump Accounts” provision of Republicans’ reconciliation bill and urged Congress to instead embrace Baby Bonds to advance economic justice.

  • Rep. Pressley rallied with advocates from Caring Across Generations, Care Can’t Wait, and partner organizations to protest Trump’s and Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill that proposes disastrous cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other essential programs and would leave communities sicker, poorer, and more vulnerable.

  • Ahead of the House’s vote on the bill, Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor in which she made a direct appeal to her Republican colleagues to oppose this cruel and harmful bill.

  • Rep. Pressley delivered a floor speech in which she slammed the bill’s proposed Medicaid cuts, which would decimate reproductive healthcare in America and worsen maternal health outcomes.

  • Rep. Pressley co-hosted a press conference with Color of Change to oppose the Republicans’ cruel and harmful budget reconciliation package, which would gut critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP.

  • Rep. Pressley rallied with caregivers, advocates, and fellow lawmakers at a 24-hour vigil to protect Medicaid from Republicans’ cruel budget cuts that would devastate communities across this country.

  • In the House Oversight Committee’s markup of the Republican reconciliation bill, Rep. Pressley demanded Republicans answer to the families who would go hungry by way of this reconciliation bill – and she was met with silence.

  • In the House Financial Services Committee’s markup of the Republican reconciliation bill, Rep. Pressley condemned the bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid and shared the story of Mary Marinelli, a 70-year-old hospice nurse from a Republican district in Michigan whose family depends on Medicaid to care for their autistic son.

  • In an impassioned speech on the House floor, Rep. Pressley slammed Republicans’ cruel and callous budget resolution that would slash Medicaid and other critical government services to pay for trillions of dollars in tax giveaways for Donald Trump’s billionaire donors.