June 25, 2025

On the 3rd Anniversary of Roe Being Overturned, Duckworth, Durbin Help Introduce Bill to Restore Abortion Access Nationwide On the 3rd Anniversary of Roe Being Overturned, Duckworth, Durbin Help Introduce Bill to Restore Abortion Access Nationwide

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – On the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Patty Murray (D-WA) in introducing the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2025, legislation to guarantee access to abortion everywhere across the country and restore the right to comprehensive reproductive health care for millions of Americans. The bill’s introduction comes as the Trump Administration further attacks a woman’s right to choose and Congressional Republicans barrel ahead with a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood. Put together, Trump and Congressional Republicans’ assault on Americans’ reproductive rights is a backdoor national abortion ban, ripping away millions of women’s access to abortion care and right to control their bodies.   

“In the three years since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision, our nation has seen Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans intensify their anti-choice crusade against basic health care and tear reproductive freedoms away from Americans across the country—especially from low-income women and women of color,” said Duckworth. “We cannot let Republicans’ extreme policies continue to force women into impossible, dangerous and potentially life-threatening scenarios over deeply personal healthcare decisions. The Women’s Health Protection Act would end this living nightmare and rightfully put women back in charge of their own bodies, their careers and their futures.”

“The Dobbs decision reversed a nearly half-century guarantee to Americans that the Constitution grants them the right to abortion access.  Three years later, that right is still under attack by Republicans who are implementing draconian abortion laws. Americans deserve the right to choose,” said Durbin. “It is up to the individual to decide if and when they expand their family, not a judge or a politician. That is why my colleagues and I are introducing the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2025, legislation that codifies the right of each American to make their own reproductive health care decisions.”

President Trump appointed the Supreme Court Justices who ruled in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case to overturn Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of precedent. Since the Dobbs decision, 19 states have banned abortion or severely restricted women from being able to access the procedure, leaving one in three American women without access to safe, legal abortion care. Additionally, state legislatures across the country have introduced hundreds of bills to include medically unnecessary restrictions that limit access to abortion care.

In his second term, President Trump has continued to relentlessly attack reproductive rights, including freezing Title X funding for clinics that offer reproductive care, cutting Biden-era emergency abortion protections, pardoning anti-abortion extremists, and fighting to defund Planned Parenthood. Additionally, the House-passed Republican budget bill kicks 16 million people off their health insurance and defunds Planned Parenthood – threatening the closure of 200 health centers across the country and putting access to vital reproductive care for millions of families at risk.

The Women’s Health Protection Act creates federal rights for patients and providers to protect abortion access. Specifically, the Women’s Health Protection Act would:

  1. Prohibit states from imposing restrictions that jeopardize access to abortion earlier in pregnancy, including many of the state-level restrictions in place prior to Dobbs, such as arbitrary waiting periods, medically unnecessary mandatory ultrasounds or requirements to provide medically inaccurate information.
  2. Ensure that later in pregnancy, states cannot limit access to abortion if it would jeopardize the life or health of the mother.
  3. Protect the ability to travel out of state for an abortion, which has become increasingly common in recent years.

In addition to Duckworth and Durbin, the legislation is sponsored by the entire Senate Democratic caucus, including Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Full text of the bill is available on Senator Duckworth’s website.

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