Democrats predict abortion access, reproductive rights will be key issues in 2024
Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday morning were also focused on reproductive rights, announcing they would try to pass four bills they argued Republicans should support.
The legislation would ensure the right to travel across state lines to access abortion, protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from laws in other states, guarantee people the right to access birth control and boost privacy protections for online health and location data.
Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end the nationwide, constitutional right to an abortion has led to a country where “Republican politicians have the final say in (women’s) health care decisions.”
“Doctors in some states are having to deny patients the life-saving care that they need, or risk being sent to jail,” Murray said. “Providers in states like mine are being pushed to the breaking point, trying to serve an influx of patients from out of state.”
Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin told the story of a woman in her home state who had to wait to receive medical care for a miscarriage until she got sick enough that doctors didn’t fear legal repercussions.
She also spoke about a woman who had to leave the state to access abortion, noting the state’s abortion law was written in 1849 and took effect again after the Dobbs decision last summer.
“Living under that draconian criminal ban has been nothing short of dire for Wisconsin families,” Baldwin said.
One woman, she said, didn’t receive medical care when her water broke at 17 weeks. Instead, she had to wait until her fever reached 101 degrees and she began showing signs of sepsis.
“Another Wisconsin couple, who I spoke with, were told that there were serious anomalies with the pregnancy at 13 weeks. But she was forced to stay pregnant with an unviable pregnancy and play travel agency and lawyer to try to figure out how to get the health care she needed out of state,” Baldwin said.
Another woman, Baldwin said, reported bleeding for 10 days after Emergency Department health care workers declined to help her following an incomplete miscarriage.