A group of disabled protesters have been forcibly removed from the office of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell after gathering to demonstrate against the Republican Party’s health care reform bill.
Members of ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights organization, staged a ‘die-in’ protest at McConnell’s office in an attempt to stop what they see as “attacks on disabled people’s freedoms” in the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA).
“To say people will die under this law is not an exaggeration,” Mike Oxford, an organizer for the group, said in a statement.
Online footage of the protest shows Capitol Hill Police lifting protesters from the floor outside McConnell’s office. Around 60 protesters holding signs bearing anti-AHCA slogans can be heard chanting “Don’t Touch Medicaid” as officers drag demonstrators out through the hallway.
There’s also been unconfirmed reports of blood on the floor in the hallway.
RT.com has contacted McConnell's office for comment.
Senate Republicans released a 142-page draft of its long-awaited healthcare reform bill Thursday, following weeks of secretive deliberations within the GOP which allowed no Senate hearings and no Democratic amendments.
READ MORE: Senate Republicans release draft of Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill
Protesters fear the bill’s proposed caps and cuts to Medicaid will reduce home and community based services for elderly and disabled people. The bill also strips key benefits from former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act; lowers taxes for the wealthy; and slashes funding from women’s reproductive health provider, Planned Parenthood.
“Our lives and liberty shouldn't be stolen to give a tax break to the wealthy. That's truly un-American,"said ADAPT organizer Bruce Darling.
Such is their majority in the Senate, Republicans can afford to lose two Senators and still see the bill approved when it is voted on next week. However, Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee and Rand Paul, issued a joint statement Thursday saying, they “are not ready to vote for this bill.”
“It does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their healthcare costs,” their statement added.