Political partisanship once again takes precedence over health care in party-line vote on Women’s Health Protection Act
WASHINGTON — In response to the Senate’s vote today on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), Health Care for America Now Executive Director Margarida Jorge released the following statement:
Passing the Women’s Health Protection Act would put an end to the political games that politicians have played with essential health care for decades and prioritize the needs of patients over partisan ideology. Unfortunately, even now that a leaked decision has made clear that millions are likely to lose access to basic rights and access to abortion, senators continue to put partisan politics over the health and well-being of their constituents by voting to deny millions access to abortion care.
Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans support keeping access to abortion safe and legal, lawmakers consistently restricted access to the procedure. Denying abortion care can have devastating negative impacts on the health and economic security of women and families, yet in state after state, lawmakers have added huge financial and geographic barriers to access, targeted patients and health care providers with endless limitations and even created criminal penalties for decisions that people make about their health care. With the Constitutional right to abortion under assault at the Supreme Court, Americans need a federal law to protect abortion access so that no one has to travel thousands of miles or risk criminal charges to end their pregnancy.
Decisions about health care and about if and when to start a family are not political, they are personal. No matter where people live or who they voted for, everyone needs access to basic reproductive health care that enables them to control their own destinies. If this Congress will not act to protect abortion access, the Biden administration and leaders at the state level must use every tool at their disposal to minimize the fallout of the Supreme Court’s pending ruling to overturn Roe.
