Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2016/Abortion

	; ; Former presidential candidate; Bernie Sanders
	Political offices: ; U.S. Senator; (Assumed office: 2007); U.S. Representative; (1991-2007);
	Sanders on the issues:
	Taxes • Banking policy • Government regulations • International trade • Budgets • Agricultural subsidies • Federal assistance programs • Foreign affairs • Federalism • Healthcare • Immigration • DACA and DAPA • Education • Abortion • Gay rights
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Bernie Sanders announced his presidential run on April 30, 2015.^[1]

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This page was current as of the 2016 election.

CANDIDATE SUMMARY
Sanders was in favor of legalized abortion.
He viewed the Republican effort to cut off support for Planned Parenthood as an attack on women’s health, especially low-income women.
Sanders was committed to rescinding the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion services.

On June 27, 2016, after the United States Supreme Court struck down two provisions in Texas House Bill 2 that regulated abortion, Bernie Sanders released the following statement: “Today the Supreme Court reaffirmed that access to a safe and legal abortion is a woman’s constitutional right, a right which cannot be blocked by extreme, Republican politicians. This is a decisive victory for women across the country. After all the progress we have made on women’s rights, we cannot go back to the days when women in America did not have the right to control their own bodies.”^[2]

Bernie Sanders committed on January 22, 2016, to rescinding the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion services. He said in a statement, “As president, and as someone who has a 100 percent pro-choice voting record in Congress, I will do everything that I can to protect and preserve a woman’s right to an abortion. Women must have full control over their reproductive health in order to have full control over their lives. We must rescind the Hyde Amendment and resist attempts by states to erect roadblocks to abortion.”^[3]

On September 2, 2015, Sanders sent the following tweet about protecting funding for Planned Parenthood:

Bernie Sanders' tweet from September 18, 2015

On July 29, 2015, Sanders released the following statement about the Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood: "The attempt by Senate Republicans to cut off support for Planned Parenthood is an attack on women’s health. Stripping funding for Planned Parenthood would punish the 2.7 million Americans, especially low-income women, who rely on its clinics for affordable, quality health care services including cancer prevention, STI and HIV testing and general primary health care services. The current attempt to discredit Planned Parenthood is part of a long-term smear campaign by people who want to deny women in this country the right to control their own bodies."^[4]

Sanders voted against HR 1833 - Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1995, which proposed making it a crime to perform a partial-birth abortion, "except where such an abortion is necessary to save the life of a mother endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury, provided that no other medical procedure would suffice."^[5]

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