ICYMI: At Spotlight Forum on Dobbs Anniversary, Murray and Senate Democrats Highlight How Republicans’ Efforts to Ban Abortion & Rip Away Reproductive Health Care Has Harmed Women & Families
ICYMI: On Four-Year Anniversary of Dobbs, Senator Murray Vows to Make Suffering of Women Under Republican Abortion Bans Impossible to Ignore, Pushes to Restore Abortion Rights in All 50 States
Washington, D.C. – Today, on the four-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), and U.S. Representative Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-WA-08) reintroduced legislation to protect abortion providers in states like Washington—where abortion remains legal—from Republicans’ attempts to restrict their practice and create uncertainty about their legal liability. The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act would ensure that doctors can continue to safely provide legal abortion care and protect health care providers from being held liable for providing services to patients from other states. The legislation is also co-led by Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV).
“Four years after Republicans ripped away the right to abortion, they’re not satisfied—now they want to reach across state lines to arrest, sue, and harass the doctors who provide legal care. When Republican legislators try to weaponize the law to intimidate and imprison doctors providing legal abortion care that is nothing short of them trying to impose a backdoor national abortion ban,” said Senator Murray. “Our bill says something that should be common sense—a doctor providing abortion care, in a state like Washington where that care is legal, should never face prosecution by out-of-state politicians. No doctor should be punished for helping a woman get the health care she needs. I’ll keep fighting tooth and nail to restore the rights Republicans ripped away—and to protect the ones they’re still trying to take.”
“As a woman, a mother, and a pediatrician, I know that if, when, and under what circumstances to become a mother is one of the most important decisions a woman will make,” said Congresswoman Schrier. “I will continue to do everything I can to protect women’s access to contraception and safe abortion, which includes protecting abortion providers. State legislatures across the country and Republicans in Congress are using every tactic possible to restrict access to and criminalize abortion. Doctors should not have their hands tied or fear criminal penalties, loss of licensure, or loss of insurance coverage if they provide abortion care. This bill would preserve doctors’ ability to perform this important medical procedure, and ensure patients and their doctors are the ones making personal medical decisions – not the government.”
The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability. Specifically, the bill will:
- Protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from being subject to laws that try to prevent them from providing reproductive health care services or make them liable for providing those services to patients from any other state. These protections could be enforced by a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice, a patient, or a provider, ensuring the Department of Justice could not turn a blind eye to state laws that violate these protections;
- Prohibit any federal funds from being used to pursue legal cases against individuals who access legal reproductive health care services or against health care providers in states where abortion is legal;
- Create a new grant program at the Department of Justice to fund legal assistance or legal education for reproductive health care service providers;
- Create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to support reproductive health care service providers in obtaining physical, cyber, or data privacy security upgrades necessary to protect their practice and patients; and
- Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage solely because of legal health services offered to patients.
In the Senate, in addition to Senators Murray, Luján, Padilla, and Rosen, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
In the House, in addition to Representative Schrier, the legislation is cosponsored by Representatives Ami Bera, M.D. (CA-06), Herb Conaway Jr., M.D. (NJ-03), Maxine Dexter, M.D. (OR-03), Kelly Morrison, M.D. (MN-03), and Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-25).
The legislation is endorsed by All Above All, the Center for Reproductive Rights, National Council of Jewish Women, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Partnership for Women & 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.
Full text of the legislation is available HERE.
###
