WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.), today joined 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus in introducing the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023, federal legislation to guarantee access to abortion, everywhere across the country and restore the right to comprehensive reproductive health care for millions of Americans. The bill’s introduction follows the Supreme Court’s misguided decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which repealed Roe v. Wade. This decision has stripped access to abortion care for millions of Americans and denied individuals the freedom to make their own health care decisions. Since the Dobbs decision, 14 states have already implemented near-total abortion bans, leaving one in three American women without access to safe, legal abortion care. Additionally, state legislatures across the country have introduced hundreds of bills to include medically unnecessary restrictions that limit access to abortion care. 

  

The Women’s Health Protection Act creates federal rights for patients and providers to protect abortion access and creates federal protections against medically unnecessary restrictions that undermine Americans’ access to health care and intrude upon personal decision-making. 

 
“As women face one of the darkest times in our history challenging their freedom to make their own reproductive decisions, Democrats are united in doing everything we can until reproductive health care access is fully restored,” said Sen. Menendez. “Passing the Women’s Health Protection Act is the most effective way to revert the damage caused to millions of women by the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.” 

 

“These repeated attacks on reproductive health care are an assault on the fundamental idea that all people should have the right to make their own decisions about their bodies,” said Sen. Booker. “I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill that will ensure access to abortion across the country and restore the right to make crucial health decisions to millions of people.” 

  

Following the Dobbs decision in June of last year, millions of Americans are now unable to make their own health care decisions. Patients are being denied or delayed access to necessary and potentially life-saving treatment, including for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriage management, because of new legal risks to providers. And, the harms caused by these abortion restrictions fall heaviest on populations that already experience inequities, including people with low incomes, people of color, immigrants, young people, people with disabilities, and those living in rural and other medically underserved areas. 

  

The Women’s Health Protection Act would: 

  • Prohibit states from imposing restrictions that jeopardize access to abortion earlier in pregnancy, including many of the state-level restrictions in place prior to Dobbs, such as arbitrary waiting periods, medically unnecessary mandatory ultrasounds, or requirements to provide medically inaccurate information. 

  • Ensure that later in pregnancy, states cannot limit access to abortion if it would jeopardize the life or health of the mother. 

  • Protect the ability to travel out of state for an abortion, which has become increasingly common in recent years. 

 

A copy of the bill text is available HERE. 

 

###