EDMONDS, WA – On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to temporarily allow Idaho to uphold its ban on abortion, even in medical emergencies. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) issued the following statement:
“The Supreme Court’s decision to let this extreme abortion ban stay in place means pregnant Idaho women who are in danger of dying will have to suffer while lawyers decide whether they can get emergency care. This is not how health care should work.
Patients and their doctors should make decisions about reproductive health, not a hospital’s legal team or the government.
Congress must pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, and other bills to ensure that everyone has the right to access abortion care and that doctors can’t be prosecuted for doing their jobs,” Sen. Cantwell said.
Since a leaked draft opinion indicated the Supreme Court’s intent to overturn the reproductive care precedent established under Roe v. Wade, Sen. Cantwell has been focused on protecting abortion access and choice for women across the country. In March 2023, Sen. Cantwell joined Sen. Murray in reintroducing the Women’s Health Protection Act and hosting a roundtable discussion on the path forward to defend Americans’ reproductive rights.
In April, Sen. Cantwell joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and 25 other colleagues in reintroducing the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, which would ban anti-choice states from restricting or preventing health care providers from performing legal abortions.
In May, Sen. Cantwell joined 12 Senate colleagues in reintroducing the My Body, My Data Act to protect personal reproductive health data.
Also in May, Sen. Cantwell joined 29 Senate colleagues to introduce the Protecting Service Members and Military Families’ Access to Health Care Act, legislation that would codify the Department of Defense’s policy to help service members and their families access non-covered reproductive health care – including abortion services – regardless of the state in which they are stationed.
In June, Sen. Cantwell joined colleagues in reintroducing the Right to Contraception Act to codify the right to contraception access established by the Supreme Court ruling Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965. The same month, Sen. Cantwell cosponsored the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act to ban anti-choice states from penalizing or prosecuting health care providers that offer reproductive services in states where abortion care is legal.
Also in June, Sen. Cantwell released a snapshot report about the impact of the Dobbs decision on abortion providers and patients in Washington state. Her report included new data showing substantial increases in out-of-state abortion patients, especially from Idaho, in the first half of 2023 compared to the same time period in 2022.
In July, Sen. Cantwell joined 46 colleagues in writing to Secretary Becerra to urge HHS to adopt stronger privacy regulations for Americans’ protected health information, including a warrant requirement for the release of medical records in the reviewed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule regulation. These protections are particularly important because 19 Republican attorneys general – including Idaho’s Raúl Labrador – sent a public comment to Secretary Becerra strongly opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ revised HIPAA protections. If successful, their opposition would make it easier for courts in Idaho to investigate abortions performed in Washington state and prosecute patients and providers. This is alarming in light of the findings in Sen. Cantwell’s snapshot report showing increases in out-of-state abortion patients in Washington.
Last month, Sen. Cantwell joined a resolution expressing support for the abortion medication mifepristone and calling for the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug to be respected. The resolution followed a U.S. Supreme Court announcement it will review a lower court ruling that would restrict access to mifepristone nationwide — including in states like Washington that have expressly codified the right to an abortion into law.
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