Warner & Kaine Join Colleagues in Introducing Legislation to Protect the Right of Women to Cross State Lines to Seek Abortion Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Ahead of tomorrow’s one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s devastating decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined Sen. Cortez Masto (D-NV) and a number of their colleagues in introducing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. As legislatures and governors across the country continue to target and undermine reproductive freedoms, this legislation would block anti-choice states from limiting travel for abortion services. It would also empower the 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.

“One year ago, we watched as the Supreme Court rolled back decades of precedent, leaving women in America with fewer rights than they were born with. Since then, we’ve seen a patchwork of statewide abortion policies and have heard horrifying stories from women who’ve had their safety and long-term health compromised by these policies. As legislatures across the country pass increasingly oppressive laws policing women’s health, we’reintroducing legislation to clarify that women cannot be prosecuted for traveling across state lines to seek the care they need,”said Sens. Warner and Kaine.

Anti-choice politicians in states like Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri are working to punish both women for leaving their state for reproductive care and 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 states like Virginia, where abortion is still legal in most cases,from prosecution and lawsuits for serving individuals traveling from other states. 

In addition to Senators Warner, Kaine, and Cortez Masto, this legislation was cosponsored by U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), as well as Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Coons (D-DE), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Cardin (D-MD) Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Tina Smith (D-MN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), John Fetterman (D-PA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

This legislation is endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 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.

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