ACLU Statement on the U.S. House Passing Bills to Protect Abortion Access

WASHINGTON — Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two bills to protect abortion access across the country — the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would protect the right to access abortion by creating federal safeguards against abortion bans and restrictions, and the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which would reaffirm the right to travel out-of-state to seek abortion care and to help those who do. In response to the passage of these bills, J.J. Straight, deputy director of the Liberty Division at the ACLU, issued the following statement:

“We applaud the House’s bold leadership in passing these critical bills and sending the clear message to anti-abortion state politicians that their attacks on our bodily autonomy won’t stand. For weeks, millions of women and other people who can become pregnant have been forced into a nightmare that no one deserves to endure, and the impacts have already been horrific. We urgently need our leaders to take action to address this crisis at all levels of government. We will keep fighting — in courthouses and legislatures, through protests in the streets, and at the ballot box — to make sure all of us have the freedom to make decisions about our bodies and futures.”