First State Times

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act yesterday alongside 33 of their Senate colleagues. This bill would block states from limiting travel for abortion services and authorize the U.S. Attorney General and impacted individuals to bring civil action against those who restrict a woman’s right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care.

“The constitutional right to freely travel across state lines to access essential health care shouldn’t be up for debate,” said Senator Carper. “I will continue stand up to the repeated attempts to limit women’s access to health care because no one should be denied the care they need. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act will protect women’s access to health care, and I’m proud to support this legislation.”

“It has been a year since conservative activists on the Supreme Court destroyed the 50-year precedent of a woman’s constitutional right to control her own reproductive health,”said Senator Coons.“Having gutted Roe, anti-choice activists around the country aren’t just enacting state-level abortion bans; they’re attempting to roll back the constitutional right to interstate travel so they can stop women from accessing needed reproductive health care. We need the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act to ensure that the health, autonomy, and constitutionally mandated rights of women seeking reproductive health care are protected.”

This April,Idahobecame the first state to criminalize assisting out-of-state travel for some seeking abortions. Anti-choice politicians in states likeTennessee, Texas, and Missouri are trying to punish women for leaving their state for reproductive care as well as the doctors and employers who help them. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act 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 like Delaware from prosecution and lawsuits for serving individuals traveling from other states.

In addition to Senators Carper, Coons, and Cortez Masto, the legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

This legislation is endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Women’s Law Center, Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Partnership for Women & Families, Catholics for Choice, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, and the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.

Senator Coons is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee

Original source can be found here.