Two years ago on June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that overturned 1973’s Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey from 1992, and returned the power to regulate abortion to states.
Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, who represents Virginia’s District 4, issued a statement on the second anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Two years ago, extremist justices on the Supreme Court disregarded 50 years of judicial precedent and overturned Roe, jeopardizing Americans’ right to an abortion nationwide. Since the disastrous ruling, we have witnessed a wave of abortion bans and restrictive health care laws that further limit patients’ reproductive freedom, including access to contraception and fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization,” McClellan said.
According to McClellan, access to reproductive health care is a social, political, economic and public health issue.
“Limiting Americans’ ability to decide how, when and whether to start a family is unconscionable, particularly in the country with the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income nation. As a Black mother who almost died during childbirth, it makes me furious to think that my daughter may have fewer rights than I did when she reaches her childbearing years,” she said.
Virginia is the only state in the South without an abortion ban or extreme abortion restriction thanks to legislation championed by McClellan when she served in the Virginia General Assembly.
“Now more than ever, Virginia serves as a safe haven for reproductive health care services for patients who cannot access the same care in their home state,” McClellan said.
She said Americans should be able to make decisions about their own health and consult with health care providers.
“I am working in Congress to enshrine Roe into federal law and safeguard access to reproductive health care nationwide. This second anniversary of Dobbs reminds us of what’s at stake. We must continue our efforts to safeguard reproductive freedom because American lives depend on it.”
McClellan, a member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, cosponsors the following bills to protect reproductive health care services: Women’s Health Protection Act, Stop Comstock Act, Access to Contraception for Servicemembers and Dependents Act, Right to Contraception Act, Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act, Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, and the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act. McClellan signed multiple amicus briefs in support of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA to protect access to mifepristone.
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Rebecca Barnabi
