House Votes to Approve Legislation to Guarantee Abortion Access

The U.S. House of Representatives took a stand against new laws that limit or essentially ban abortion after they voted to approve a landmark piece of legislation that would create the federal right for Americans to access abortion care, regardless of where they live. The Women’s Health Protection Act would effectively nullify Texas’ SB-8, allowing anyone in the state to sue for a $10,000 bounty if they believe someone has carried out an abortion following the sixth week of pregnancy or if they helped to procure an abortion, and other similar cases that look to counter Roe v. Wade.

The measure would be a first-time establishment for the federal statutory right for all U.S. healthcare providers to provide abortion services and for all American to receive such care, regardless of where they live. It would not allow restrictions imposed by individual states, like requiring special admitting privileges for providers or implementing wait periods. It would also prohibit restrictions on abortion after fetal viability, when, in the judgment of the healthcare provide, “continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

“For people in Texas, the 50 years of legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade is effectively meaningless,” says Diana DeGette, Colorado representative and co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus. “For people in Mississippi, the constitutional right to access abortion care may soon no longer exist. This legislation will ensure that all Americans—regardless of where they live—have a federally-protected right to access abortion care. It will negate the Texas and Mississippi laws, and it will guarantee all women in this country—once again—have the freedom to decide what’s best for them.”

The bill passed the House essentially along part lines, 218-211, with one democrat voting with republicans, though it will now head to the Senate, where 10 republicans and all democrats would need to back the bill to meet the 60-vote threshold to beat a filibuster.

“Make no mistake,” DeGette says, “this is all part of a broader, concerted effort to turn back the clock on Americans’ reproductive rights in this country. And the need for Congress to act has never been more urgent.”

In another, ongoing response to the recent attacks on reproductive healthcare, the Department of Justice also sued the state of Texas earlier this month, stating that the law is in “open defiance of the constitution.”

“The act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a September 9 news conference. “Those precedents hold, in the words of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that ‘regardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.’ ”

Last week, Colorado’s Attorney General Phil Wieser also joined a coalition of 24 other attorneys general filing a court brief against Texas’ abortion ban in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge.