June 20, 2023

On Anniversary of the Fall of Roe v. Wade, Van Hollen, Cortez Masto, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Protect the Right of Women to Cross State Lines to Seek Abortion Care

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) alongside their Democratic colleagues, including Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), in re-introducing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. As states across the country continue to attack women’s freedoms, this legislation would block anti-choice states from limiting travel for abortion services and empower the Attorney General and impacted individuals to bring civil action against those who restrict a woman’s right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care.

Anti-choice politicians in states like Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri are working to punish both women for leaving their state for reproductive care and the doctors and employers who help them. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act underscores the Constitutional protections for interstate travel and provides redress for women whose rights are violated

The legislation led by Senator Cortez Masto alongside Senators Whitehouse, Murray, and Gillibrand, is cosponsored in addition to Senator Van Hollen by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

This legislation is endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Women’s Law Center, Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Partnership for Women & Families, Catholics for Choice, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, and the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.