Health care protests outside Mitch McConnell’s office led to 43 disability advocates being arrested Thursday.
Dozens of members of national disability rights organization ADAPT gathered outside the Senate Majority Leader’s offices on Capitol Hill to oppose the new Republican health care legislation proposal.
“The American Health Care Act caps and significantly cuts Medicaid which will greatly reduce access to medical care and home and community based services for elderly and disabled Americans who will either die or be forced into institutions,” wrote Bruce Darling, an ADAPT organizer taking part in the protest, in a statement. “Our lives and liberty shouldn’t be stolen to give a tax break to the wealthy. That’s truly un-American.”
“Not only will AHCA take away our freedom,” added Dawn Russell, an ADAPT organizer from Colorado, “that lost freedom will also cost Americans much more money. The nursing facilities that people will be forced into are much more expensive than community-based services that AHCA would cut.”
As protesters gathered to make their voices heard, U.S. Capitol police allegedly warned demonstrators to “cease their unlawful activities” or risk being arrested, The Washington Post reported.
Those who did not comply were arrested and charged with crowding and obstructing.
Video footage showed the disability advocates, some of whom were wheelchair bound, being forcibly removed from outside McConnell’s office.
Many Twitter users banded together in support of the disability advocates.
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