Washington, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) today led House passage of two bills that would protect the federal right to an abortion. The Women’s Health Protection Act restores the right to an abortion nationwide ensuring all Americans – regardless of where they live – can make their own decisions about their lives and their futures. It ensures that health care providers have a statutory right to provide abortion care and patients have a statutory right to receive that care, free from state bans and restrictions that are only intended to impede or block access. Video is available here.
The Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act protects Americans from extremist Republican politicians and antiabortion groups by ensuring no person acting under state law can prevent, restrict, impede, or otherwise retaliate against a person traveling across state lines to obtain a lawful abortion. It also prohibits interference against a health care provider and person’s ability to provide, initiate, or enable an abortion service that is lawful in the state in which the service is to be provided. Video is available here.
“These bills are necessary now more than ever following the Republican-controlled Supreme Court’s extreme decision taking away a woman’s right to abortion. The Court’s ideological decision ignored nearly 50 years of precedent and is the culmination of decades of unrelenting efforts by Republican politicians to deny women’s right to choose an abortion,” said Pallone. “The Women’s Health Protection Act ensures that no matter where you live, you have a right to comprehensive health care that is free from unnecessary restrictions that are only intended to impede access.
“The Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act reaffirms the right to travel across state lines to obtain a lawful abortion. It protects health care providers who provide lawful abortion care to out-of-state residents. And it protects anyone who may assist a woman in crossing state lines to obtain a lawful abortion, such as a friend, partner, or volunteer,” Pallone concluded. “Both of these bills mitigate the extreme and dangerous laws right-wing ideologues are enacting now that prevent women from making their own health care decisions. I now urge the Senate to act.”
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