Washington, D.C. – This weekend, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and 31 Senate colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to take bold action to protect 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.
“Now is the time for bold action to protect the right to an abortion. You have the power to fight back and lead a national response to this devastating decision, so we call on you to take every step available to your Administration, across federal agencies, to help women access abortions and other reproductive health care, and to protect those who will face the harshest burdens from this devastating and extreme decision,” wrote the Senators.
“The chilling reality is that our daughters and granddaughters now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. Women across the country are now being told by states what choices they can and cannot make when it comes to their own health and reproductive choices. This is dangerous and horrifying and it will endanger women’s lives,” continued the Senators. “We cannot stand idly by as Republicans rip away women’s rights. And we know they will not stop with this decision—they are already eyeing a national abortion ban.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
Although abortion is protected by law in Nevada due to a 1990 referendum that enshrined it in statute, a Republican Congress could enact laws to restrict abortion nationwide. 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 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. She was a vocal opponent of the Trump administration’s efforts to limit access to family planning and reproductive health care and worked to block federal court nominees who would roll back women’s health care and reproductive freedoms.
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