BALDWIN, BLUMENTHAL, CHU, FRANKEL, PRESSLEY, AND ESCOBAR ANNOUNCE PLANS TO REINTRODUCE THE WOMEN’S HEALTH PROTECTION ACT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in a case that directly threatens fifty years of precedent protecting access to abortion, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Veronica Escobar (D-TX) announced that they would be reintroducing the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion, everywhere. 

“This week’s news out of the Supreme Court was an urgent call to action: reproductive rights are under direct, imminent attack. Our bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, would protect against unconstitutional laws like Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban – laws that attack people’s freedom to make decisions about their own bodies and which directly contradict decades of Supreme Court precedent,” said the Members. “Our legislation reaffirms what the Supreme Court established fifty years ago: access to abortion is a fundamental right. We look forward to formally reintroducing our legislation with the support of our colleagues in the coming weeks.”

WHPA guarantees a pregnant person’s right to access an abortion—and the right of an abortion provider to deliver these abortion services—free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship.