Heinrich Cosponsors Legislation To Protect Access To Reproductive Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is cosponsoring the Women's Health Protection Act, a bill to make it illegal for states to chip away at women's reproductive rights. The legislation would protect a woman's right and ability to determine whether and when to bear a child by limiting restrictions on the provision of abortion services -- such as those in place in states including Texas and Wisconsin. The bill's introduction comes as the country marks the 42nd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

"Women in New Mexico and across the country deserve to make their own decision about family planning," said Sen. Heinrich. "Laws to protect a women's right to choose what's best for her body and well-being should not be restricted to what state she lives in.  Strengthening women's reproductive rights and freedom to make their own personal health care choices is at the heart of this bill."

The Women's Health Protection Act would prohibit laws that impose burdensome requirements on access to reproductive health services like requiring doctors to perform tests and procedures that doctors themselves have deemed unnecessary, or preventing doctors from prescribing and dispensing medication as is medically appropriate. These restrictions are unnecessary, extreme measures that do not significantly advance women's health or the safety of abortion services. Instead, they aim to make abortion services more difficult to access.

The bill was authored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and is cosponsored by 29 others. A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.