Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL) (Photo via Facebook)

Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL) (Photo via Facebook)

Congressman Gary Palmer of Alabama swears he isn’t pro-discrimination just because he’s trying to block funding for a D.C. law that bars employers from discriminating against workers for their reproductive choices.

No, no, Palmer is just trying to protect freedom, he explains in an editorial for The Hill about his choice to add a rider to a must-pass appropriations bill that would block funding for D.C.’s Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act.

This ordinance from the D.C. city council would make it a crime for an organization to refuse to provide health insurance coverage for abortions regardless of whether or not the owners of the business or organization believed that all life is sacred and of value.

Employers who oppose abortion and oppose paying for them as part of a compensation package have every right to exercise their freedom not to do so, and those who want to receive abortions or have them paid for by their employer have every right to seek employment from someone willing to do so.

The only problem with his reasoning? The D.C. Code specifically says that the law “shall not be construed to require an employer to provide insurance coverage related to a reproductive health decision.” That sentence was added as an amendment in 2015, after the law’s passage in 2014.

Either Palmer has not gotten the memo or he’s deliberately misrepresenting the law. He added the same rider to last year’s appropriations bill, and conservative groups like Right to Life Committee and Concerned Women for America encouraged members to vote for it.

While Palmer’s amendment passed in the House last year, it was not included in the Senate’s version of the bill. Back in 2015, House Republicans tried to prevent RHDHA from ever becoming law via disapproval resolution, but the Senate’s lack of action felled that plan, too.

What the Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act actually does is ensure that bosses can’t discriminate against employees “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, breastfeeding, or reproductive health decisions,” meaning a person cannot be fired from a job for deciding to, say, have a child out of wedlock or decide to go on birth control.

Palmer’s office has not returned a request for comment.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton says that there’s no point in going to Palmer’s office to let him know he misunderstood what the law does. “I have to fight these things,” she says. “I can’t talk him out of this, please. I have to fight it, and I’m fighting it now, and I think I have a fair shot.”

First, the amendment needs to be considered in order by the House Rules Committee to make it into the appropriations bill. That announcement will come on Thursday. If it’s not considered in order, the fight ends there. But if it is, Norton says she’ll work on convincing senators.

For his part, Palmer is struggling with how to present his fact-challenged editorial. He deleted his first tweet promoting it, which was perhaps more ironic than intended.

Here’s your reminder that Palmer is a representative of Alabama constituents who trying to futz around with a D.C. law, despite being entirely unaccountable to residents who would be affected by it. Like some other less-than-popular Capitol Hill meddlers, Palmer sleeps in his office when he stays in the District.

Palmer replaced the first tweet with this one:

Norton says that she thinks the editorial got published because, with members having only just returned from recess, “there wasn’t a lot to fill the paper.”

The Hill has not responded to a request for comment.

Previously:
Congressman: It Should Definitely Be Legal To Discriminate Based On Reproductive Choices In D.C.
Policy Riders And Lack Of Statehood Put A Major Burden On Abortion Care In D.C.
House Passes Appropriations Bill Riddled With Anti-Home Rule Riders
Rider Cowboys: This Is How Congress Dictates Policy To D.C.
People We Didn’t Elect Say No To Budget Autonomy, Abortions, Weed, Needle Exchanges

Filed Under: eleanor holmes norton, gary palmer, meanwhile on capitol hill,