Durbin: It's Now Up To Congress To Protect Women And Health Care Providers From The Results Of The Disastrous Dobbs Ruling

Press Release

"We had originally intended to hold our hearing closer to the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs ruling. But growing reports of the chaos and harm caused by that decision were so alarming that we decided to move up our fact-finding to two months ago.

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"With the first anniversary of this ruling upon us, those warnings [about the effect of overruling Roe v. Wade] have come true. Just 100 days after the Dobbs decision, 22 million American women of reproductive age--almost one in three women--found themselves living in states where abortion is now illegal or highly restricted. Abortion is now completely banned in 14 states, leaving large swaths of the country without care. Some statewide bans include jail time for health care providers who perform abortions. And make no mistake: Unless we act, more -- and more severe -- restrictions are coming. The last year has exposed the true aim of anti-choice extremists: They seek a national abortion ban.

"The impact of abortion restrictions in any state are felt well beyond that state's own borders. In my state, largely as a consequence of near-total bans in many surrounding states, the number of abortions performed at Planned Parenthood facilities in Illinois increased by 54 percent last year. That increase was driven largely by women from out of state seeking access to abortion that is now outlawed in their own states. As a result, wait times to obtain an abortion have increased dramatically in our state.

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"Personal decisions about health care should be made by individuals and their doctors, not by politicians with an ideological agenda. That is why I strongly support the four measures that my Democratic colleagues have offered today to protect women's right to travel to receive health care, protect patients' data privacy, protect health care providers' ability to provide abortions in states where it is legal, and protect the right to contraception. It's hard to imagine in 2023 that we are actually facing the prospect of losing a woman's right to contraception as well as access to reproductive health care.

"The Dobbs ruling has sown chaos, fear, and division, it has usurped doctors' rights to make the best health care decisions for their patients… stripped women of their right to make their own health care decisions, and given the power to make those decisions to politicians. It is now up to Congress to protect women and health care providers from the results of this disastrous ruling."

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