Senator Murray: “This bill will help make a big difference in making sure people with disabilities can get the informed and accessible reproductive health care they deserve.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) reintroduced their Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, legislation to help women with disabilities—who face discrimination and extra barriers when seeking care—get better access to the timely, informed, and culturally competent reproductive health care they deserve. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D, MA-07) is introducing companion legislation in the House.
“Every single American woman deserves reproductive health care from a provider that understands her unique needs and treats her with dignity and respect as she makes her personal health care decisions—this is especially true for women with disabilities who often face discrimination and additional barriers to receiving basic health care,” said Senator Murray. “While Republicans do all they can to rip away health care, attack our reproductive rights, and try to ban abortion nationwide, I am continuing to fight back and ensure that all women can access high-quality care from providers who understand their unique needs. This bill will help make a big difference in making sure people with disabilities can get the informed and accessible reproductive health care they deserve.”
“Americans with disabilities have long faced barriers to health care services, equipment and providers—and those barriers have only multiplied under the Trump Administration when it comes to reproductive care,” said Senator Duckworth. “Between the fall of Roe and Republicans passing $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, it’s shameful how Donald Trump has made sure it’s even harder for people with disabilities to access reproductive health care. I’m proud to introduce this bill with Senator Murray to help ensure that Americans with disabilities are not left behind in getting the care we need, when we need it.”
“Everyone should have equitable access to healthcare. Disability justice and reproductive justice are connected,” said Congresswoman Pressley, Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus. “With a nationwide assault on reproductive healthcare deeply impacting our siblings with disabilities, this bill is timely, urgent and responsive. I’m grateful to Senator Murray, Senator Duckworth, and our advocates for their ongoing partnership on this legislation.”
“The barriers disabled people face when trying to access reproductive health care are real, longstanding, and too often ignored. This bill recognizes that accessibility is not optional when it comes to bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom,” said Mia Ives-Rublee, Senior Director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. “Everyone deserves the ability to make informed decisions about their own health and future, and that means ensuring care is accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of disabled people.”
“For too long, our health care system has subjected people with disabilities, and especially disabled Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, to discrimination in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care. And while this discrimination often violates federal civil rights laws, it persists,” said Madeline Morcelle, Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program. “We are proud to endorse the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act because it invests in solutions that will help prevent discrimination before it happens, such as comprehensive provider training and grants to increase disabled representation in the SRH care workforce. Together, these measures will help foster a future in which people with disabilities’ sexual and reproductive autonomy is honored, pain and other symptoms are not dismissed, and SRH care is accessible, trauma-informed, culturally and linguistically appropriate, non-coercive, and delivered with dignity.”
All Americans deserve to decide if, when, and how to start and raise a family—including the roughly one in four adults with disabilities, who report wanting children as much as those without disabilities do. But people with disabilities have long experienced discrimination and barriers when accessing sexual and reproductive health care. They are also less likely to receive contraception counseling and timely prenatal care, experience a higher rate of sterilization, and are at a greater risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. And they face other barriers to accessing reproductive care, such as a lack of accessibility at health care facilities, accessible medical diagnostic equipment, accessible travel, and health care providers trained on how to treat and address the unique, diverse needs of people with disabilities receiving reproductive health care.
The legislation would provide grant funding for training and education programs for health care professionals focused on the reproductive health needs of people with disabilities, help to increase the representation of people with disabilities in the health care provider workforce, and establish a new technical assistance center to provide recommendations and best practices regarding sexual and reproductive health care for people with disabilities, among other things. The lawmakers first introduced the bill in 2022, and reintroduced it in 2023 as well.
The Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act would lower barriers to sexual and reproductive care and help ensure disabled people get timely access to culturally competent health care. Specifically, the bill would:
- Provide grant funding to carry out training programs for health care professionals providing reproductive health care for individuals with disabilities;
- Establish grants to expand the health care provider workforce by increasing the number of people with disabilities in those professions;
- Provide grant funding to carry out education programs for entities with a demonstrated expertise in serving individuals with disabilities, focused on the sexual and reproductive health care needs of this population;
- Create a new technical assistance center to provide recommendations and best practices regarding sexual and reproductive health care for people with disabilities; and
- Direct the Department of Health and Human Services to carry out a study to analyze reproductive health care for people with disabilities.
The legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Edward Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The legislation is endorsed by American Civil Liberties Union, All* Above All, Catholics for Choice, Center for American Progress, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, National Abortion Federation, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, National Council of Jewish Women, National Disability Rights Network, National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, National Health Law Program, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, National Network of Abortion Funds, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Power to Decide, and Reproductive Freedom for All.
A one-pager on the bill is available here.
The full text of the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act is here.
###
