Senator Murray: “Women who seek reproductive health care, and the doctors who provide that care, should never be treated as criminals—but Republican lawmakers and prosecutors in state after state have made clear that they want to punish and jail women and their doctors over what is often lifesaving abortion care.”
Murray led a letter with Sen. Wyden in July urging strong privacy protections for abortion data
Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, which would protect abortion providers in states where abortion is legal from Republicans’ attempts to restrict their practice and create uncertainty about their legal liability
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on the Biden administration’s final rule to strengthen the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to protect people who seek, obtain, or provide legal reproductive health care.
“Women who seek reproductive health care, and the doctors who provide that care, should never be treated as criminals—but Republican lawmakers and prosecutors in state after state have made clear that they want to punish and jail women and their doctors over what is often lifesaving abortion care. By strengthening privacy regulations under HIPAA, the Biden administration is taking an important step toward protecting women and doctors.
“The American people should take Republicans at their word: Donald Trump has literally said he believed women should be ‘punished’ over abortion care, and Republican elected officials across the country have actively sought to imprison and criminalize women and their doctors. While Republicans look to punish women for basic reproductive health care, Democrats will keep fighting alongside President Biden to restore Roe and the right to abortion nationwide. And we will do everything we can in the meantime to protect women and health care providers from Republican officials who seek to punish them for obtaining or providing legal abortion care.”
Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and she has led Congressional efforts to fight back after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade last year. Murray led her colleagues at the very outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’ continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing now. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; she also co-leads the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide. Ahead of the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senator Murray led Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms, and in January she led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans.
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