Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, today led a Subcommittee hearing entitled, “Crossing the Line: Abortion Bans and Interstate Travel for Care After Dobbs.”
“When the Court announced Dobbs, Republicans claimed it returned the issue of abortion to the states. But they’re clearly not content with criminalizing abortion in their own states. They now want to go after anyone who helps women and girls seek care in a safe state,” said Chairman Whitehouse in today’s hearing.
“We can’t rely on an increasingly extreme Supreme Court to protect constitutional rights we’ve relied upon for generations. Congress needs to step in to limit the damage this Court has done,” continued Chairman Whitehouse. “We can start by swiftly passing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, codifying the protections of Roe, and safeguarding access to contraception and IVF.”
Reproductive health care providers from Rhode Island and across the country discussed the uptick in travel for abortion care and the harms of abortion bans in a video shown during the hearing.
The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, which is sponsored by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Whitehouse, Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), would safeguard the constitutional right to travel across states lines to receive abortion care—and protect the providers who care for them.
Chairman Whitehouse’s remarks are below. The providers’ video is available here. Full video of the hearing can be found here.
Chairman Whitehouse Opening Remarks — Crossing the Line: Abortion Bans and Interstate Travel for Care After Dobbs
Since the right-wing majority of our captured Supreme Court took away women’s right to an abortion, we’ve been hearing repeated horror stories caused by extreme abortion bans. A ten-year-old girl forced to flee her state to get an abortion after being raped. A Texas man finding his wife unconscious in the bathroom in a pool of blood after the hospital refused to perform a surgical abortion to treat a miscarriage. A Tennessee woman forced to give birth to a stillborn baby, knowing for months that the baby was never going to live due to a fatal anomaly.
As Senator Murray said at the HELP hearing last week, while dystopian stories get national attention, draconian abortion bans are harming women all over the country. As of today, 14 states have banned abortion, and three additional states have banned abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant. Several more states will have bans snap into place once litigation concludes. Overall, one in three women of reproductive age live in a state that now bans abortion.
For these women, trying to get abortions when needed may mean having to travel hundreds of miles to a safe state. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that in 2023, more than 170,000 individuals had to travel out of their state to seek abortions. The average Florida resident now lives about 590 miles from the nearest provider, adding a drive-time of more than seven hours.
OB/GYNs and doctors who care for pregnant women have seen firsthand the chaos and heartbreak these bans have wrought on women and families. We will now hear briefly from providers about the toll abortion bans have taken on their patients.
We will hear today from Lauren Miller, who had to flee her home state of Texas to get the abortion care she needed for a nonviable twin. Lauren was sick enough to warrant multiple trips to the emergency room, and her healthy twin, and her own health, were at risk. But she wasn’t near death enough to qualify for an abortion under Texas’s ban.
When the Court announced Dobbs, Republicans claimed it returned the issue of abortion to the states. But they’re clearly not content with criminalizing abortion in their own states. They now want to go after anyone who helps women and girls seek care in a safe state.
Already, Alabama’s Attorney General has threatened to prosecute anyone who helps a woman leave Alabama for abortion care. That could be a doctor who refers the woman to an out-of-state provider, a friend who helps book a plane ticket, or a family member who pays for a hotel. Think of a state prosecuting and jailing aunts and grandmothers trying to help. In Texas, a man is suing to investigate women who allegedly helped his ex-girlfriend travel for an abortion out of state.
Although some state efforts have been temporarily blocked by federal courts as unconstitutional, the clear purpose of these attempted travel restrictions is to scare people and sow confusion and fear in the medical profession.
Many OB/GYNs in ban states do not feel safe referring or even sharing information about abortion care out of state. Ms. Miller will testify that her doctors were frightened to even suggest an abortion for her nonviable twin to protect her viable twin. These legal restrictions prevent OB/GYNs from providing the care they’re trained for, that is medically indicated, so many are choosing to leave ban states – bad news for women’s health.
We could dispel any doubts about the legality of traveling for abortion care by passing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. That bill, sponsored by Senator Cortez Masto, which I’m pleased to join, protects the right of women to cross state lines to seek abortion services. It would also protect providers and anyone who helps a woman travel interstate for abortion care.
As we’ve seen, we can’t rely on an increasingly extreme Supreme Court to protect constitutional rights we’ve relied upon for generations. Congress needs to step in to limit the damage this Court has done. We can start by swiftly passing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, codifying the protections of Roe, and safeguarding access to contraception and IVF.
