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Dear Friends,
Since the majority Republican-appointed Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the House of Representatives has moved quickly to protect Americans’ freedoms in southwest Connecticut and across the country. This comes on the heels of my weekend in the district, where I visited Planned Parenthood in Bridgeport to let our brave health care providers know that they have my full support. Speaking with constituents, I hear the same refrain: keep fighting to protect a woman’s right to choose.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, I want to reaffirm my commitment to ensuring that every woman in the United States has the right to reproductive freedom and access to care. Last week, I was proud to vote for two bills to protect those rights, including:
• The Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act: Protects women from restrictive laws that prohibit them from traveling to another state to access reproductive care.
• The Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022: Enshrines Roe v. Wade into law, ensuring federal protection for patients accessing abortion and healthcare providers' ability to perform abortion services without fear of criminalization, free from state bans and restrictions.
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling – apart from eliminating abortion rights that have been in place for 50 years – also raised the specter of the Court eliminating other freedoms protected under the Fourteenth Amendment in future cases, including access to healthcare without fear of retribution, access to contraception, and marriage for same-sex couples. This week, the House of Representatives passed two bills to ensure that these rights cannot be taken away:
• The Right to Contraception Act: Guarantees that neither states nor a hostile Republican administration can limit people’s access to contraceptives or the ability of healthcare providers to supply contraception.
• The Respect for Marriage Act: Enshrines marriage equality into federal law and repeals the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act that withholds state and federal benefits for married same-sex couples.
We face an uphill battle to enact these bills into law, but please know that I hear you, and I will continue fighting to protect Americans’ basic rights and fundamental freedoms.
Sincerely,
Jim
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