Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in the introduction of the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act—a bill to protect health care providers from Republicans’ attacks on reproductive freedoms and ensure they can safely provide abortion care in states where it is still legal, including Oregon. This week, Senators will take to the Senate floor to seek unanimous consent to pass the legislation.
Republicans’ nonstop attacks against women’s reproductive freedom have long targeted doctors and care providers, with state laws like Texas’ SB8 allowing for anyone to bring a lawsuit against a health professional who provides abortion care. In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe contra Wade, these attacks have only increased—with Republican state legislators drafting legislation that would make it a crime to perform an abortion on a state resident even in another state where abortion is legal. Abortion providers are already facing nonstop attacks from Republican politicians.
El Ley para que los médicos brinden atención de la salud reproductiva will help protect against these attacks, ensuring that providers in states where abortion remains legal are shielded from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability.
“The freedom to be in control of your own body is an essential freedom, and it’s so crucial that medical decisions be made by individuals and whomever they may choose to consult—not by extremist politicians,” dijo Merkley. “Today, we are in a struggle with an extremist minority that wants to control you, your body, and your life. This bill protects doctors and other professionals who provide reproductive health care, including abortions, and ensures patients can get care in a timely and safe manner. Quite frankly, this bill will save lives, and it’s essential that we get it passed.”
“In the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning the right to a safe and legal abortion, fanatics are now targeting doctors and care providers just doing what they were trained to do — providing life-saving reproductive health care,” dijo Wyden. “This bill would protect those providers from the extremists plotting to attack the right for patients to make decisions about their own bodies.”
El Ley para que los médicos brinden atención de la salud reproductiva will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability. Specifically, the bill will:
- Proteger a los proveedores de atención médica en los estados donde el aborto es legal de estar sujetos a leyes que intentan evitar que brinden servicios de salud reproductiva o hacerlos responsables de brindar esos servicios a pacientes de cualquier otro estado. Estas protecciones podrían hacerse cumplir mediante una demanda federal del Departamento de Justicia, un paciente o un proveedor, asegurando que un futuro Departamento de Justicia no pueda hacer la vista gorda ante las leyes estatales que violan estas protecciones;
- Prohibir que se utilicen fondos federales para entablar casos legales contra personas que acceden a servicios legales de atención de la salud reproductiva o contra proveedores de atención médica en estados donde el aborto es legal;
- Crear un nuevo programa de subvenciones en el Departamento de Justicia para financiar asistencia legal o educación legal para proveedores de servicios de salud reproductiva;
- Crear un nuevo programa de subvenciones en el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos para ayudar a los proveedores de servicios de salud reproductiva a obtener actualizaciones de seguridad física, cibernética o de privacidad de datos necesarias para proteger su práctica y sus pacientes; y
- Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage because of legal services offered to patients.
In addition to Senators Merkley, Wyden, Murray, Luján, Padilla, and Rosen, the legislation is also co-sponsored by Senators Schumer (D-NY), Bennet (D-CO), Markey (D-MA), Stabenow (D-MI), Heinrich (D-NM), Blumenthal (D-CT), Warren (D-MA), Smith (D-MN), Van Hollen (D-MD), Cardin (D-MD), Menendez (D-NJ), Klobuchar (D-MN), Murphy (D-CT), Reed (D-RI), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Whitehouse (D-RI), Hirono (D-HI), Sanders (I-VT), and Duckworth (D-IL).
The bill has been endorsed by: Dr. Caitlin Bernard, Physicians for Reproductive Health, the National Women’s Law Center, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Catholics for Choice, the National Partnership for Women & Families, the Center for Reproductive Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
Full text of the legislation can be found aquí.
A one-page summary can be found aquí.
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