Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
Cantwell: “Republicans Want A Ban On Abortion”
Senate vote to protect reproductive freedom fails 49-51
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) voted to uphold the freedom of American women to make decisions about their own reproductive health care.
A Senate vote to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) – which would codify abortion access into federal law by applying the same standard established nearly 50 years ago by Roe v. Wade – ultimately failed 49-51.
After the vote, Senator Cantwell released the following statement:
“Republicans want a ban on abortion. And if the Supreme Court and Senate Republicans have their way they will succeed. The health care decisions of women should be left up to individuals and their doctors. 70% of Americans agree.”
Yesterday, Senator Cantwell delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling on her colleagues to reject Republicans’ extremist, anti-choice campaign to yank reproductive health care back to “the Dark Ages.”
“What are you thinking when you are advocating for a return to pre-Roe? What, exactly, do you think is going to happen in the United States of America? I can tell you: You’re going to leave women without the ability to control their own bodies, without the ability for them and their doctor to make decisions,” she said in her speech, which can be viewed HERE.
Last week, after the draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked, Senator Cantwell addressed reporters from the steps of the Senate. She pledged to fight against Republicans’ attempts to “foist on the American public an invasion of their rights to privacy.” Her full remarks can be viewed HERE.
Last year Senator Cantwell cosponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, a previous version of the legislation addressed today. Like the bill voted on today, the 2021 version would have guaranteed a pregnant person’s right to access an abortion—and the right of an abortion provider to deliver these abortion services—free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship.
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