Republican Senator Blocks Murray, Cortez Masto Effort to Protect Right to Travel

***WATCH: Senator Murray calls out Republicans’ extremism on Senate floor***

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) sought unanimous consent to pass their bill to protect Americans’ fundamental right to travel across states lines—but Republican Senator James Lankford (R-OK) blocked the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022. The legislation would protect every woman’s fundamental right to travel across state lines to receive abortion care—and to protect the providers who care for them—as extreme Republican lawmakers seek to punish women for exercising their right to travel to get the care they need.

“Republicans lawmakers have already set their sights on ripping away the right to travel. Let’s be really clear what that means: they want to hold women captive in their own states,” Senator Murray said on the floor. “They want to punish women—and anyone who might help them—for exercising their constitutional right to travel within our country to get the services they need in another state.”

“It should be hard to think of something more extreme, more barbaric, more un-American than ripping away women’s rights and forcing them to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion. And yet, here Republicans stand, saying no. Saying to American women: ‘We don’t just want to control your bodies—we want to control your travel. We want to hold you captive in your state and force you to give birth.’ They should be ashamed of themselves,” Senator Murray said in a statement. “It’s disgraceful that anyone would object to making sure people can travel to other states for reproductive health care. It’s morally repugnant. By objecting to this bill, Republicans are rejecting any appearance of fighting for people’s rights, and embracing all-out oppression of women like never before.”

The Senators introduced the legislation earlier this week alongside Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and many of their Democratic colleagues. Legislation introduced in Missouri and draft legislation proposed by anti-choice extremists make clear that interstate travel for reproductive health care is under attack. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022 underscores the Constitutional protections for interstate travel and provides redress for women whose rights are violated. The legislation would also protect health care providers in pro-choice states from prosecution and lawsuits for serving individuals traveling from other states.

Read full text of the legislation here.

Since the leaked draft revealed the Supreme Court was planning to overturn Roe, Senator Murray has been a leader in the Senate pushing back: immediately calling the decision a “five alarm fire,” pushing for a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act so every Republican Senator was forced to show the American public where they stood, and leading her colleagues in the fight to protect everyone’s reproductive rights. Senator Murray has led her colleagues in urging the Biden administration to craft an all-of-government plan to protect abortion rights. She called out data brokers’ collection and sale of sensitive location data that could put those seeking abortion care at risk—and introduced legislation to ban the practice outright. She introduced legislation condemning the criminalization of the full range of reproductive and sexual health care. Senator Murray also introduced legislation to expand access to affordable, over-the-counter birth control—and has led efforts in Congress to ensure patients can get the birth control they need without being forced to jump through unnecessary hoops or pay out-of-pocket.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Senator Murray has led her colleagues in calling on the Biden administration to take bold action to protect Americans’ reproductive rights. Senator Murray held a hearing yesterday on reproductive health care in a post-Roe America and the barriers, challenges, and threats it poses to women’s health.

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