Senators were joined by reproductive health care providers, advocates to call attention to how the Dobbs decision is impacting our nation’s reproductive health care workforce
ICYMI: Recent Report from Physicians for Reproductive Health Details Dobbs’ Erosion of the Health Care Workforce
***WATCH: Livestream of the Press Conference***
***PHOTOS HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) led a press conference on how Republican abortion bans passed following the disastrous Dobbs decision have harmed our nation’s reproductive health care workforce—forcing providers to leave their states and shut down their practices, limiting providers’ ability to provide evidence-based care and making them turn away patients in distress, and overwhelming reproductive health care providers in states where abortion remains legal with an influx of patients from states where abortion is banned. The senators were joined at the press conference by Dr. Raegan McDonald Mosley, CEO of Power to Decide; Dr. Michael Belmonte, a D.C.-area OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH); and Karen Stone, Vice President of Public Policy & Government Relations at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The press conference comes on the heels of new data from the AAMC Research and Action Institute, which found that, for the second year in a row, graduating medical students are less likely to choose residency programs in states with abortion bans or severe abortion restrictions. The analysis found a 4.2% decrease in the number of applicants for residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans. For OB-GYN residency applicants, states where abortion is banned saw a 6.7% decrease in the number of applicants. Also this month, polling from CNBC/Generation Lab found that nearly two-thirds of respondents between 18-34 would “probably not” or “definitely not” live in a state that banned abortion, and 45% of respondents said they would “definitely reject” or “probably reject” a job offer located in a state where abortion is illegal.
Senators Baldwin and Murray lead the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore abortion rights nationwide, as well as the Reproductive Health Care Training Act, which would establish a new grant program to expand and support comprehensive training in abortion care and help meet the need for more women’s health care providers nationwide. Murray also leads the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, which would protect abortion providers in states where abortion remains legal from Republicans’ attempts to restrict their practice and create uncertainty about their legal liability. Republicans voted down the Women’s Health Protection Act in 2022 and have repeatedly blocked Democrats’ attempts to pass the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act.
“Health care providers in so many states are being put in impossible situations every day, where instead of being able to help patients who need an abortion—for any reason— their hands are tied by politicians,” said Senator Murray. “And because of these extreme Republican abortion bans, we are understandably seeing more and more health care providers leave states with bans—because why practice in a state that threatens you with the loss of your license, heavy fines, and even prison time, if you dare to help a patient get the abortion care they need? It’s yet another example of the dangerous chaos that Republicans’ extreme, anti-abortion policies have unleashed.”
“Far-right Republicans have been systematically working to dismantle a woman’s fundamental right to choose for decades, and with the Dobbs decision have thrown our nation’s healthcare providers into chaos,” said Leader Schumer. “Democrats have been saying loud and clear that we stand with women and with our nation’s health care providers, and we will never stop fighting to take back these rights from the far-right extremists who want to impose their views on a country that overwhelmingly does not agree with them.”
“The stark reality is that since Republicans overturned Roe v. Wade, women have been stripped of the right to decide what is best for their families and it’s led to dire impacts. Sadly, the consequences don’t stop there,” said Senator Baldwin. “Now, we’re seeing fewer doctors choose Wisconsin to start their careers, which means fewer doctors to deliver babies and fewer doctors to give necessary routine care. We have a solution and it’s passing our bill to finally restore Roe and let women decide what is best for them. Not the federal government. Not state governments. Women.”
“Abortion bans are not only restricting the rights of Arizonans—they’re also creating chaos for women and doctors,” said Senator Kelly. “Right now, as Arizona whiplashes between two abortion bans, physicians are choosing not to come to our state and others are considering leaving, putting women’s lives at risk. We must write abortion rights into law to eliminate once and for all the catastrophic consequences of Roe v. Wade being overturned.”
“As a provider, I know how to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care to my patients. I trained for years to do so. Over the last two years, I have seen more patients who have traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles to get care with me. And those are the ones who are able to reach me. There are so many more we know cannot,” said Dr. McDonald Mosley, CEO of Power to Decide. “This is not just a problem in states with bans. Wait times for appointments in states that have protections for abortion access—like my home state of Maryland—have increased as we do our best to care for as many patients as possible.”
“The impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs and extreme state abortion bans and restrictions have had far reaching consequences impacting communities across the country and the providers, like myself, that care for them,” said Dr. Belmonte, an OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH).“Following the Dobbs decision providers have been forced to shift the care or services they provide, relocate, or cease offering care altogether in response to medically unnecessary and extreme state laws, the increasing threats of criminalization, and threats to our medical licensures and livelihoods. Physicians for Reproductive Health is proud to support the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, which would ensure providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability.”
“We hear from providers across the country every day about the challenges they are facing on the frontlines of this public health crisis. Doctors are being forced to wait for lawyers to declare patients sick enough before medical intervention, some could face prison time just for doing their job to support pregnant people navigating impossible logistics to basic, necessary health care,” said Karen Stone, VP of Public Policy & Government Relations at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Abortion providers are heroes and public officials have a responsibility to ensure they can do their jobs to the best of their ability, free from interference from politicians, judges, and those with a different viewpoint.”
Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and she has led Congressional efforts to fight back after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Murray led her colleagues at the outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’ continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing now. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks and help ensure women get the care they need. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senator Murray led Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms, and in January she led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans.
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