Second Anniversary of Supreme Court’s Dobbs Decision

Women’s March, 2017 (File Photo – Ted Eytan)

Monday, June 24, marks two years since the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned the 50-year precedent in Roe v. Wade of a nationwide, constitutional right to abortion care.

By News Desk

Nationwide, 21 states now have bans or near bans on abortion. More than one out of three women in America have lost access to abortion in their home states, and doctors face criminal penalties for providing abortion care. Last year, more than 171,000 patients had to go out-of-state for an abortion procedure.

Women who are undergoing a miscarriage cannot obtain an abortion. Health complications and maternal mortality rates can increase in places where abortions are banned, particularly for Black women.

Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), the author of H.R. 12, the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), issued the following statement:

Abortion is health care: always has been, always will be. To reach real equality for all, America should be a nation of reproductive freedom where everyone has access to abortion care. For years, anti-freedom activists chipped away at the right to abortion care in states across the country. Two years ago, the MAGA justices on the Supreme Court—appointed by Donald Trump and confirmed by Republicans in the Senate—ripped away reproductive freedoms from tens of millions of Americans with their Dobbs decision. For the first time in America’s history, young women have fewer rights than their grandmothers. While doing Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans’ bidding, the Court undermined its legitimacy further than ever before in our lifetimes and created a public health crisis across entire regions of our country.

Democrats in Congress and I have given Republicans ample opportunities to work with us to pass my Women’s Health Protection Act to restore the protections of Roe and protect patients and providers from state-level bans and restrictions that impede access. They have refused. If Republicans and the MAGA movement had their way, Congress would pass a national abortion ban, and this would be a country of forced birth.

Along with my colleagues in the Pro-Choice Caucus and Democratic Women’s Caucus, I’m not done fighting. When Democrats once again control Congress, we will send a bill to President Biden to sign to restore and strengthen Americans’ reproductive freedoms.”