Lawmakers introduce legislation to block state anti-abortion measures

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, joined with several of her Congressional colleagues today to introduce legislation to prohibit states from enacting laws that restrict access to abortion care.

The move comes after more than a half dozen states passed new laws aimed at limiting access to abortion services – including several that have now banned the procedure after just six weeks of pregnancy, and at least one state that's banned the procedure altogether.

If approved, the legislation DeGette and others introduced today would nullify those new laws, and any other measures that seeks to limit an individual's access to abortion services.

"A woman and a family's choice on abortion is just that, it's her choice," DeGette said at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol Thursday to announce the bill. "It's not the choice of those people over there in the Supreme Court, or the men over here in the U.S. Capitol. It's their choice. And we're going to make sure that choice is protected."

Since the start of this year alone, governors in Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky, have all signed into law new restrictions that ban abortion after just six to eight weeks of pregnancy. But no state has gone as far as Alabama, which recently enacted a new law that bans nearly all abortions within its borders and threatens providers with up to 99 years in prison if they're caught performing the procedure.

While pro-life advocates around the country have praised the new restrictive measures, pro-choice advocates have sounded the alarm, claiming the recent wave of new anti-abortion measures – which began shortly after Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court – are not coincidence, and instead are part of a concerted effort that's intended to spark a legal challenge aimed at overturning the Court's landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade.

"The recent anti-abortion legislation that we've seen pass around the country is not a coincidence," DeGette said, "it's a concerted effort to take it to the Supreme Court and have them overturn Roe vs. Wade. We are going to work in the U.S. Congress to make sure that every woman in this country, whether they're in California, or Colorado, or Connecticut, or Georgia, or Florida, or anywhere else, has the same access to health care as every other woman in this country."

The legislation – known as the Women's Health Protection Act – would codify the protections currently provided by Roe v. Wade into law, making them immune to any potential future court challenge.

And, in addition to prohibiting states from enacting any law that restricts an individual's access to abortion care, it would also prohibit states from imposing additional burdensome requirements aimed at making it more difficult to get the procedure done – including requirements that doctors perform unnecessary tests or procedures, or forcing patients to wait a certain period of time before they can have an abortion done.

If approved, the legislation would prohibit states from enacting:

• Any laws and regulations that create new restrictions to abortion services that are more burdensome than those imposed on medically comparable procedures, do not significantly advance women's health or the safety of abortion care, and make abortion services more difficult to access. This includes:
  • Requiring unnecessary tests and procedures (e.g. mandatory ultrasounds).
  • Requiring the same clinician who performs the abortion to also perform all other related services (e.g. requiring the physician providing the abortion to also administer the ultrasound and all other care).
  • Making doctors adhere to outmoded and less effective medical regimens (e.g. restrictions on medication abortion).
  • Limitations on providing abortion services via telemedicine.
  • TRAP laws – targeted regulation of abortion providers – that impose onerous requirements on facilities and providers that do nothing to further health and make it nearly impossible for health care providers to keep their doors open.
  • Requiring women to make one or more medically unnecessary visits to a provider, including visits to so-called crisis pregnancy centers.
  • Limitations that prohibit or restrict medical training for abortion procedures.
• Pre-viability bans (e.g. 20-week bans and "heartbeat" bans)
• Post-viability bans that do not make exceptions for the woman's health or life
• Limitations that delay a woman receiving an abortion when that delay would cause a health risk
• Reason-based bans

The legislation would also direct courts to consider several various factors when evaluating whether a future measure would restrict access to abortion, including whether it:

• Interferes with an abortion provider's ability to provide care and render services in accordance with her or his good-faith medical judgment.
• Is reasonably likely to delay some women in accessing abortion services.
• Is reasonably likely to increase the costs of providing or obtaining abortion services.
• Is effectively going to necessitate extra, unnecessary trips to the abortion provider.
• Is reasonably likely to result in a decrease in the availability of abortion services in the state.
• Imposes criminal or civil penalties that are harsher or not imposed at all on other health care professionals for comparable conduct or failure to act.
• Has a cumulative impact when combined with other new or existing restrictions

A copy of the bill is available here.

And here's a link to watch video of DeGette's remarks at a press conference today to announce the bill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XHnopDkxOo&feature=youtu.be