As SCOTUS Hears Challenge to Roe, Senator Murray Vows to Keep Fighting to Protect Abortion Rights

Senator Murray: “I will not sit silently while Republicans try to end the rights affirmed by Roe v. Wade, while they try to turn the appalling law in Texas into a model for the country. No matter what happens, I will never stop fighting for reproductive rights, and that starts by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act—to ensure the right to abortion is finally protected at the federal level.”

***WATCH SENATOR MURRAY’S FLOOR SPEECH HERE***

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, gave a speech on the Senate floor on the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade—and her continuing fight to protect abortion rights from extreme Republicans attacks. If the court overturns Roe, half the states in the U.S. are poised to ban abortion entirely— leaving people across the country without access to abortion care. Currently, five states are already down to a single abortion clinic (Mississippi, North Dakota, West Virginia, Missouri, and South Dakota), and approximately 90% of counties are already without a single known abortion provider.

“Today abortion rights are hanging in the balance at the Supreme Court, and the threat to Roe is very real. Why? Because for decades, extreme Republicans have attacked abortion rights from every angle and they are continuing their non-stop efforts to build a country where patients are forced to remain pregnant and carry their pregnancies to term against their will,” said Senator Murray on the Senate floor.

“But I want to make clear: that is absolutely unacceptable. Because the majority of Americans don’t agree with extreme Republicans—the majority of Americans want a country where everyone can choose if and when to start a family, free from political interference,” continued Senator Murray. “So I will not sit silently while Republicans try to end the abortion rights affirmed by Roe v. Wade. No matter what happens, I will never stop fighting for reproductive rights, and that starts by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act—to ensure the right to abortion is finally protected at the federal level.”

Senator Murray has long fought to protect reproductive rights for women and spoken out against Republicans’ efforts to restrict patients’ control over their bodies, lives, and futures. Since the Supreme Court agreed to hear Dobbs, Senator Murray has vowed to fight back and protect Roe, including by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. Following the passage of WHPA in the House, Senator Murray, alongside Leader Schumer, Senator Blumenthal, and Senator Durbin, announced that the Senate would vote on the bill as well.

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