While Roe v. Wade may be the law of the land, abortion has always been inaccessible and a right on paper only for so many in the United States. Since the passage of Roe, there have been 1,200 abortion restrictions enacted, with 2021 on track to be one of the worst years for abortion restrictions. Jamille Fields-Allsbrook, Director of Women’s Health and Rights at the Center for American Progress and Nora Ellmann, Research Associate for Women’s Health and Rights at the Center for American Progress, sit down to talk with us about what actions need to be taken to ensure a proactive abortion agenda for the U.S. from their report, A Proactive Abortion Agenda: Federal and State Policies To Protect and Expand Access.
First and foremost, the comprehensive right to abortion, without restriction and without political interference, must be codified at the legislative level. Championing laws like the Women’s Health Protection Act would help block many of these restrictions, such as 20-week bans and targeted regulation of abortion provider (TRAP) laws. Financial support for abortion access is also critical; passage of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act would permanently repeal the Hyde Amendment and prohibits political interference with decisions by private insurance companies to cover abortion. Individual states can repeal harmful legislation and pass proactively progressive legislation to expand access to medication abortion, decriminalize self-managed abortion, and remove restrictions on physicians.
At the executive level, it’s important that they select judicial nominees that are diverse and have backgrounds in civil rights, reproductive rights, and abortion rights. The President must also have a budget that doesn’t allow for federal funding restrictions, like the Hyde Amendment, on abortion access. Finally, undue regulations on abortion-related insurance billing practices must be repealed. Already, the current administration has increased access to medication abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about this step taken by the Biden administration, listen to our podcast episode here.
When it comes to the judiciary: we need to pay attention to the courts! Again, it’s critical that judges appointed to all levels of the U.S. court system come from diverse backgrounds and have supportive records for reproductive health, rights, and justice. The courts must continue to uphold precedent and respect abortion as a right that has been established under the Constitution.
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