Washington, DC – One year after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the most significant reproductive rights case since Roe v. Wade – Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) joined Senate colleagues U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and U.S. Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA-27), Marcia Fudge (D-OH-11), and Lois Frankel (D-FL-22) in cosponsoring the Women’s Health Protection Act. In the year since Whole Woman’s Health was argued – and even in the months since the Court issued its decision, a resounding, historic triumph for women across America and their families – politically motivated attacks against women’s health care have nevertheless increased across the country.
“It is absurd that certain states still prohibit women from making their own decisions about their own bodies. Access to safe and legal reproductive health care is essential for every woman, and no state should impose restrictive laws that could endanger a woman’s health and safety,” said Cortez Masto. “I’m proud to cosponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act, which ensures women across the country are protected from the incessant and dangerous attacks against their reproductive rights.”
The Women’s Health Protection Act would protect a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion by stopping restrictive regulations and laws – such as those in place in states including Texas and Wisconsin – intended to curtail reproductive health services for women.
The Women’s Health Protection Act has 40 cosponsors in the Senate and 102 cosponsors in the House.
This legislation would prohibit laws that impose burdensome requirements on access to reproductive health services such as requiring doctors to perform tests and procedures that doctors have deemed unnecessary or preventing doctors from prescribing and dispensing medication as is medically appropriate. Other examples of laws that make it more difficult for a woman to access an abortion include: restrictions on medical training for future abortion providers, requirements concerning the physical layout of clinics where abortions are performed, and forced waiting periods for patients.
###