Blumenthal Holds Hearing on the Women's Health Protection Act

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a lead sponsor of bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion, chaired a hearing today in the Senate Constitution Subcommittee titled “Protecting Roe: Why We Need the Women’s Health Protection Act.” Last week, Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) with historic support in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“We are here to discuss the Women’s Health Protection Act because reproductive rights face a crisis unprecedented in recent decades. The fact is that reproductive rights are publicly supported as never before, but they are threatened more deeply and dangerous than any time in recent history. The threat is draconian, destructive laws at the state level,” Blumenthal said.

“The fact of the matter is, as we will hear from a number of our witnesses, access to abortion is an essential form of medical care in our society. In the America we know, personal health decisions that women make should be free to be made best for themselves, their lives, their families, without political interference.”

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.

From Roe v. Wade in 1973 to Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016, the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized abortion as a constitutional right. However, anti-abortion advocates have worked for years at the state-level to pass laws meant to undermine or eliminate access to abortion care. In the last decade, state lawmakers have pushed through nearly 500 restrictive laws that make abortion difficult and, sometimes, impossible to access. Just this year, four states have passed bans on abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, before many people even know they’re pregnant. Lawmakers in Arkansas and Oklahoma attempted to ban abortion completely. WHPA would stop these attacks and ensure that abortion access first guaranteed under Roe is a reality for everyone, everywhere.

The full text of Blumenthal’s opening remarks, as delivered, is copied below. 

We are here to discuss the Women’s Health Protection Act because reproductive rights face a crisis unprecedented in recent decades. The fact is that reproductive rights are publicly supported as never before, but they are threatened more deeply and [dangerously] than any time in recent history. The threat is draconian, destructive laws at the state level. That is one of the principle threats, obviously the Supreme Court has decided to grant certiorari in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which is the first case since Roe v. Wade to present the constitutionality of a pre-viability restriction and abortion ban. That case could completely upend and reverse Roe v. Wade.

But the reproductive rights that many Americans take for granted have been under siege for years and years as a result of the repeated and relentless attacks of laws at the state level and that’s the reason that I have led the Women’s Health Protection Act along with my colleague Senator Baldwin and our colleague in the House, Representative Chu.

The numbers of state restrictions are so numerous that they can barely be counted. Since January, legislatures in 47 states have introduced 561 abortion restrictions including 165 abortion bans. An alarming 83 of those restrictions have been enacted into law, including ten bans. Several states including Texas have passed bans on abortion at six to eight weeks of pregnancy before many people even know they are pregnant. And in Arkansas and Alabama, lawmakers have tried to outlaw abortion completely.

At this rate, 2021, this year, is on track to have the most anti-abortion restrictions from state legislators in decades. And I want to emphasize that these are laws that are advocated and passed by extremist state legislatures who are out of touch with mainstream America.

The fact of the matter is, as we will hear from a number of our witnesses, access to abortion is an essential form of medical care in our society. In the America we know, personal health decisions that women make should be free to be made best for themselves, their lives, their families, without political interference.

And the scale of attack on abortion rights has a disproportionate effect on communities of color. Today, 90 percent of American counties are without a single abortion provider. Twenty-seven states have become in effect abortion deserts because people who live there must travel 100 miles or more to reach a provider. These restrictions and bans very simply make a safe procedure unsafe and for many, impossible to access. That’s why we’re holding this hearing and why the Women’s Health Protection Act is more important than ever before.

I was a law clerk to Justice Blackmun in the 1970’s in the year after he wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade. We thought then this issue is done, it’s over, it’s decided. But the fact is that we have seen this onslaught in recent years. It has continued since Roe v. Wade. I’ve fought against efforts to overturn Roe in my career as have a number of my colleagues who are here today, but anti-abortion politicians will stop at nothing to limit and even outright ban abortion care using cruel, deceptive, and inflammatory language just to score political points.

There is a racial justice issue at the core of these attacks on Roe v. Wade. The closure of the clinics which often provide essential contraceptive care and health screenings in addition to abortion service are particularly concentrated in the south where more than half of Black Americans reside. Fewer than one in ten abortion providers are located in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black. As Dr. Perritt explained in her written testimony, the proliferation of anti-abortion restrictions serves to deepen existing inequities and worsen health care outcomes.

The Women’s Health Protection Act will put an end to this litany of state law restrictions. It would end state laws designed to shame women trying to access health care by imposing paternalistic waiting periods and biased counseling requirements. It would end laws that force women to endure medically unnecessary and invasive procedures and mandatory ultrasounds. It would end so called trap laws or targeted regulation of abortion providers such as minimum measurements for room size and corridor width that have no rationale, no basis, other than transparent desire to curtail access. And it would end laws that require providers to offer medically inaccurate information when providing abortion care.

Today you’re going to hear a lot of misinformation and distortions about what this bill does. You will hear frankly, paternalistic claims that restricting abortion is good for women’s health. You will hear that science is on the side of abortion restrictions. You will hear that states have the right to outlaw abortion. But we know none of it is true. Restrictions only serve to delay and impede women’s health care decisions and make it more costly, sometimes pushing it out of reach entirely.

The abortion restrictions we are seeing at the state level are widely opposed by leading medical societies including the American Medical Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. This bill very simply aims to restore a future where all of us, all of us are free to make the personal decisions that shape our lives, our futures, our families with dignity and respect without political interference in a decision to be made between a patient and a doctor.

I think we’ve had enough. We’ve had enough with meddling politicians getting between Americans and their health care decisions, we’ve had enough of the shameful assaults on people’s freedoms and futures. The time is now for the Women’s Health Protection Act.

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