Washington, D.C. – Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led a group of her Democratic colleagues, including Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), in re-introducing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. As states across the country continue to attack women’s freedoms, this legislation would block anti-choice states from limiting travel for abortion services and empower the Attorney General and impacted individuals to bring civil action against those who restrict a woman’s right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care.
“In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned we’ve seen anti-choice politicians ban abortion in states across the country, and it’s critical that we protect women who must travel to states like Nevada to get the health care they need,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Women’s freedoms are fundamental, and my bill sends a strong message to anti-choice states: you cannot punish women for seeking the care they need.”
Anti-choice politicians in states like Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri are working to punish both women for leaving their state for reproductive care and the doctors and employers who help them. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act underscores the Constitutional protections for interstate travel and provides redress for women whose rights are violated. The legislation would also protect health care providers in pro-choice states like Nevada from prosecution and lawsuits for serving individuals traveling from other states.
In addition to Senators Cortez Masto, Whitehouse, Murray, and Gillibrand, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
This legislation is endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Women’s Law Center, Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Partnership for Women & Families, Catholics for Choice, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, and the Guttmacher Institute .
Senator Cortez Masto has been a fierce advocate for women’s reproductive rights. She has urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect the data privacy of women seeking reproductive health care and introduced legislation to make sure women across the country have access to affordable over-the-counter birth control. She took on one of the nation’s biggest pharmaceutical wholesalers to ensure Nevadans can access the abortion pill in retail pharmacies, including Walgreens.
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