The American Humanist Association is proud to express staunch support for the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act (H.R. 782), sponsored by Representative Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7) and endorsed by the nation’s top sexual and reproductive health and rights groups. Take just a moment now to urge your Representative to please Cosponsor and Support the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act.
The Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act would prohibit infringing on a person’s right to travel to another state to obtain an abortion, and protect any person, entity, or healthcare provider that assists them in doing so. This bill makes clear that pregnant people should not have to jump through hoops or have their right to travel impeded when obtaining lawful and essential healthcare while also ensuring that medical providers and other individuals are not prosecuted for assisting patients. The bill would additionally implement avenues for legal protection and enforcement of directives in this legislation. Read the bill here.
As if the Supreme Court decision rescinding the constitutional right to reproductive health care wasn’t alarming enough, places across the country are disgracefully considering laws that would restrict a person’s right to travel to another state to obtain a legal abortion. On October 23rd, Reuters reported that Lubbock County, Texas became “the biggest jurisdiction yet” to impose restrictions on people seeking abortions, with “six cities and counties in Texas hav[ing] passed the bans, out of nine that have considered them.” Lubbock County’s ordinance explicitly bans “abortion trafficking”, which is an odd term to describe people using highways they pay taxes for attending doctors appointments wherever they wish.
Act now: urge your Representative to support the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act!
With even Justice Kavanagh noting “that a state would be violating the constitutional right to interstate travel if it sought to prohibit women from traveling out of state to seek a lawful abortion”, and elected officials in Lubbock County conceding that such an ordinance does not bare sharp teeth, such laws and/or ordinances unfortunately may find success in intimidating and causing hesitation in pregnant people simply seeking care.
Congressional Freethought Caucus Co-Chair and cosponsor Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-8) hit the nail on the head when he stated that certain members of Congress “aren’t satisfied with simply banning abortion at the state level—they want to stop Americans from seeking an abortion anywhere.” Outlawing abortion has never been about states’ rights–it’s about control, intimidation, and the widespread imposition of one religion’s tenants on the entirety of a diverse nation.
How very dystopian these anti-travel laws seem: It is a constitutional right to freely travel within the country—especially when seeking healthcare. Tell your Representative to do the right thing by cosponsoring and supporting the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act.
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