Blumenthal & Murphy Cosponsor Legislation to Ensure Doctors Can Provide Legal Abortion Care

[HARTFORD, CT] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) are co-sponsoring legislation introduced this week to protect abortion providers in states like Connecticut—where abortion remains legal—from Republicans’ attempts to restrict their practice and create uncertainty about their legal liability.

The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act would ensure that doctors can continue to safely provide legal abortion care and protect health care providers from being held liable for providing services to patients from other states. U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Representative Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-WA-08) reintroduced the bill, along with U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and U.S. Representatives Ami Bera, M.D. (D-CA-06), Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-CA-25), and Yadira Caraveo, M.D. (CO-08).

“The ongoing attacks on women’s health care further underscores the need to safeguard and protect abortion providers from out-of-state extremists. In states like Connecticut – where abortion remains legal – doctors should not have to fear prosecution for doing their jobs and providing critical care to patients. Reproductive care is essential for women’s health, and we must do everything we can to protect providers from attempts to restrict their practice,” said Blumenthal.

“In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans across the country have stepped up their attacks on abortion – even going after doctors who provide abortions in states like Connecticut where it remains legal. This legislation would make sure that doctors can continue to provide reproductive health care without out-of-state extremists threatening to prosecute and jail them,” said Murphy.

The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability. Specifically, the bill will:

• Protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from being subject to laws that try to prevent them from providing reproductive health care services or make them liable for providing those services to patients from any other state. These protections could be enforced by a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice, a patient, or a provider, ensuring a future Department of Justice could not turn a blind eye to state laws that violate these protections;
• Prohibit any federal funds from being used to pursue legal cases against individuals who access legal reproductive health care services or against health care providers in states where abortion is legal;
• Create a new grant program at the Department of Justice to fund legal assistance or legal education for reproductive health care service providers;
• Create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to support reproductive health care service providers in obtaining physical, cyber, or data privacy security upgrades necessary to protect their practice and patients; and
• Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage solely because of legal health services offered to patients.

The legislation is also co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The legislation has been endorsed by: Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Partnership for Women & Families, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, National Women’s Law Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and NARAL.

Read the full text of the legislation here and a one-pager here.

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