Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that a vote on the GOP's revised healthcare bill has been postponed until after the Fourth of July recess. The GOP's plan to repeal and replace The Affordable Care Act would have left 22 million people without access to healthcare by 2026. It also put funding for Medicaid and Planned Parenthood in peril.
The vote has been delayed because it failed to garner enough support from Republican senators, but a protest at the United States Capitol has continued as planned this evening. Hundreds of protestors from over two dozen advocacy groups and non-profits formed a human chain around the Capitol to express their opposition to the GOP's dangerous healthcare proposals.
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The protest went on despite the delay because the vote has certainly not been cancelled entirely. Over 1,500 people had RSVP'd prior to the protest, and some familiar faces were in the crowd. California Senator Kamala Harris tweeted yesterday that she planned to join the human chain and encouraged others to do the same.
RT to spread the word: Human chain at the U.S. Capitol tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET. I’ll be there. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 27, 2017
Planned Parenthood, which could be federally defunded under the GOP's healthcare proposal, was out in full force with its many supporters.
#StandWithPP pic.twitter.com/joHCnd1c2D
— Willoughby Dobbs (@WilloughbyDobbs) June 28, 2017
Hundreds of people had gathered around the United States Capitol by 5 p.m. EST in a powerful display of opposition to the healthcare bill that even Donald Trump himself has described as "mean."
To give u a sense of scale of how MASSIVE this #TrumpCare Protest is, so many we really are a #HumanChain#MarchOnHealth #PeoplesFilibuster pic.twitter.com/TZHP7swKIl
— Alexis Goldstein (@alexisgoldstein) June 28, 2017
Yesterday, Planned Parenthood organised a protest inspired by The Handmaid's Tale to highlight how devastating the American Health Care Act would be for women.
As Trump scrambles to secure a victory, the delay in the healthcare vote marks yet another setback for the president and prominent GOP congresspeople. And, based on the public outcry regarding the healthcare bill, he faces an uphill battle in fulfilling his promise to "repeal and replace Obamacare."