July 12, 2024

Duckworth Joins Senate Democratic Colleagues, Healthcare Providers in Releasing Report on How Women Are Burdened by Dobbs Decision No Matter What State They Live In

In new interviews and discussions with more than 80 doctors, educators and advocates across the country, dire post-Dobbs trends emerge: Longer wait times, onerous travel, worsening health care deserts, a thinning workforce pipeline and harrowing cases of patients airlifted out of state

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) this week joined U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and 13 women Democratic Senators in releasing a new report: Two Years Post-Dobbs: The Nationwide Impacts of Abortion Bans. The report —based on testimony from more than 80 health care providers and advocates from all across the country—details how the Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision is harming women’s health care in states across the U.S., whether those states have abortion bans or not.

“In the two years since the Supreme Court threw out Roe v. Wade, our nation has seen the horrific consequences of MAGA Republicans’ relentless anti-choice crusade against women, doctors and our entire healthcare system,” said Duckworth. “Republicans’ attacks have caused an influx of patients to travel to Illinois—a proud beacon of reproductive freedom. And while we’ve welcomed them with open arms, let’s be clear: No one should be forced to travel out of state to access the care they need. This report shows that now as much as ever, we must do more at the federal level to protect and expand affordable access to emergency care and enshrine every American’s freedom to make their own decisions about their own bodies.”

Examples of the cascading and nationwide impacts of Dobbs on women’s access to reproductive health care include:

  • Women with wanted pregnancies are leaving abortion ban states to seek care. In some emergency situations, patients are being airlifted out.
  • New data on how Florida’s abortion ban is burdening patients across the South by forcing them to travel as far as Illinois for care.
  • Evidence of a ripple effect from abortion bans—reproductive health care wait times have increased for patients in some pro-choice states, especially in major cities near airports.
  • OB/GYNs and other health care providers are fleeing abortion ban states and some medical students are refusing to train in them.

Along with Cantwell, Schumer and Duckworth, U.S. Senators Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) joined in releasing today’s report.

Throughout her time in the Senate, Duckworth has made protecting reproductive freedom in the face of Republicans’ anti-choice crusade a top priority. Duckworth, alongside Murray and Booker, led the Right to IVF Act, legislation that would both establish a nationwide right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) as well as lower the costs of IVF treatment for the millions of families who need it to have their children. Last month, Duckworth and other Senate Democrats urged Senate Republicans to help pass the legislative package. Instead, Senate Republicans blocked the legislation, making it the third time they had blocked Duckworth-led legislation that would protect access to IVF.

Previously, Duckworth led the Access to Family Building Act—that builds on previous legislation she introduced in 2022—that would establish a federal right for patients to access IVF, for healthcare providers to provide IVF if they want to as well as for insurance companies to cover IVF. In February, Duckworth led a group of Senate Democrats in calling for the bill’s passage through unanimous consent, but U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) objected, blocking the effort. This was the second time Senate Republicans blocked Duckworth-led legislation that would protect access to IVF nationwide.

Duckworth was the first Senator to give birth while serving in office and had both of her children with the help of IVF. In 2018, she advocated for the Senate to change its rules so she could bring her infant onto the Senate floor. She has made protecting and expanding access to essential reproductive healthcare a top priority.

-30-