Sen. Menendez, colleagues reintroduce legislation to ensure doctors can provide legal abortion care, protect providers from out of state extremists
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) joined Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and U.S. Representative Kim Schrier, MD (D-Wash.-08) in reintroducing legislation to protect medical providers in states like New Jersey – where abortion care remains legal – from Republicans’ attempts to restrict their practice and create uncertainty about their legal liability.
The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act would ensure that doctors can continue to safely provide legal abortion care and protect health care providers from being held liable for providing services to patients from other states.
“Doctors should not fear being punished for providing their patients with legal abortion services,” Menendez said. “The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that doctors providing legal abortion care are protected and can practice without legal threats.”
The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability.
Specifically, the bill will:
- Protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from being subject to laws that try to prevent them from providing reproductive health care services or make them liable for providing those services to patients from any other state. These protections could be enforced by a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice, a patient, or a provider, ensuring a future Department of Justice could not turn a blind eye to state laws that violate these protections;
- Prohibit any federal funds from being used to pursue legal cases against individuals who access legal reproductive health care services or against health care providers in states where abortion is legal;
- Create a new grant program at the Department of Justice to fund legal assistance or legal education for reproductive health care service providers;
- Create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to support reproductive health care service providers in obtaining physical, cyber, or data privacy security upgrades necessary to protect their practice and patients; and
- Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage solely because of legal health services offered to patients.
In addition to Senators Menendez and Murray, the legislation is also co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The legislation has been endorsed by: Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Partnership for Women & Families, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, National Women’s Law Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and NARAL.
