U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) joined 47 of their Senate colleagues in introducing the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023, federal legislation to restore the right to comprehensive reproductive health care for millions of Americans.
The bill’s reintroduction — led by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Richard Blumenthal (CT) — follows the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which repealed Roe v. Wade, which has stripped access to vital health care and abortion care for millions of Americans and denied many women the freedom to make their own health care decisions. Peters and Stabenow have previously cosponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act.
While Michiganders voted in November 2022 to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution, the Women’s Health Protection Act would establish federal rights for patients and providers to protect access to an abortion and create protections against medically unnecessary restrictions that undermine Americans’ access to health care and intrude on personal decision-making.
“After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, many women no longer have access to necessary and sometimes lifesaving care,” said Senator Gary Peters. “From my family’s own experience, I know how painful it is to face these heartbreaking and complicated situations. That’s why passing the Women’s Health Protection Act is so important – so women can have the freedom to make their own health care decisions with their doctors, no matter where they live.”
“A radically conservative Supreme Court decided that reproductive freedom is no longer a constitutional right in the United States,” said Senator Stabenow. “That’s why it’s so incredibly important that we pass a law that says once and for all that women in America have the freedom to make their own health care decisions. That is what the Women’s Health Protection Act will do, and I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill.”
The Women’s Health Protection Act would:
- Prohibit states from imposing restrictions that jeopardize access to abortion earlier in pregnancy, including many of the state-level restrictions in place prior to Dobbs, such as arbitrary waiting periods, medically unnecessary mandatory ultrasounds, or requirements to provide medically inaccurate information;
- Ensure that later in pregnancy, states cannot limit access to abortion if it would jeopardize the life or health of the mother; and
- Protect the ability to travel out of state for an abortion, which has become increasingly common in recent years.
Following the Dobbs decision in June 2022, millions of Americans are unable to make their own health care decisions.
Patients are being denied or delayed access to necessary and potentially life-saving treatment, including for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriage management, because of new legal risks to patients and providers. The harms caused by these abortion restrictions fall heaviest on populations that already experience inequities, including people with low incomes, people of color, immigrants, young people, people with disabilities, and those living in rural and other medically underserved areas Since the Dobbs decision, 14 states have already implemented near-total abortion bans, leaving one in three American women without access to safe, legal abortion care. Additionally, state legislatures across the country have introduced hundreds of bills to include medically unnecessary restrictions that limit access to abortion care.
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