A group of Senate in 2021 as a response to the looming potential demise of Roe. The WHPA passed in the House with historic support in September 2021, just weeks after Texas implemented a draconian measure banning abortion at six weeks and deputizing private citizens to enforce the new law. The bill died by filibuster in the Senate last February and again in May, days after the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that eventually led to the repeal of Roe.
The WHPA failed to advance in the Senate last year even after Democrats stripped the bill of legislative findings that described the intersection of racism, classism and misogyny in abortion restrictions — an attempt to “attract the broadest possible support” from Democrats, Blumenthal told HuffPost last May.
The 2023 version of the legislation also leaves out these nonbinding findings, which are often used to help establish the intent of a piece of legislation and can be pointed to later if there are court challenges.
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“In too many corners of America today, the far right’s crusade to stifle the bodily autonomy of pregnant people is leading to disproportionate harm for non-white communities as well as LGBTQ+ communities,” Schumer said in a statement. “This legislation writes into law that reproductive freedom and access to basic health care should be available to every American, not subject to the whims of an extreme party whose beliefs are out of step with a majority of Americans.”
