Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) has been leading calls for the Biden Administration to take bold executive action to protect access to reproductive care and improve the accessibility of birth control across the country. Last week, she sent a letter urging President Biden to stand up for women’s reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and as Congressional Republicans make it clear they want to enact a nationwide abortion ban. Today, President Biden announced he would heed this call and issue a series of executive orders to protect access to reproductive care across the country.
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In addition, Cortez Masto has been focused on the importance of protecting women’s data privacy. Currently, data brokers can buy and sell personal location and other health data that could put women at risk of prosecution for accessing life-saving reproductive care in anti-choice states. Cortez Masto sent a letter in May urging the FTC to protect patient privacy and has introduced the DATA Privacy Act to protect American’s personal data from exploitation. She also called on the administration to update HIPAA to protect the privacy of patients who receive abortions. The executive actions announced today will take some of these important steps by directing the FTC to crack down on data brokers that sell private data to extreme groups, updating HIPAA, and expanding protections for private health data. |
“As states across the country roll back women’s reproductive rights, we need to be taking bold action to protect them,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Today, the Biden Administration heeded my call to take executive action to safeguard access to reproductive care and protect women’s data privacy. While these steps are important, more needs to be done by the administration and by Congress to protect reproductive freedom, and I’ll keep fighting for women and their families.”
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Senator Cortez Masto has been a tireless advocate for reproductive rights in the U.S. Senate. From the beginning, she raised the alarm about the danger the Dobbs case represented to Roe v. Wade and joined Congressional colleagues in filing a brief in the case urging the Supreme Court to uphold Roe. She is leading legislation to protect the right to cross state lines to seek abortion services. She has repeatedly called on Congress to do more to protect women’s health care by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, legislation she cosponsored to guarantee equal access to abortion everywhere. Last month, she introduced legislation to ensure that women across the country can access and afford over-the-counter birth control options and plan their own reproductive lives on their own terms. She was a vocal opponent of the Trump administration’s efforts to limit access to family planning and reproductive care and worked to block federal court nominees who would roll back women’s health care and reproductive freedoms. ### |