Senator Rosen Spoke At A Press Conference On This Legislation Ahead of Introduction, Announces Floor Effort
Watch Senator Rosen’s Remarks Here.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) joined Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) in a press conference to announce the introduction of their Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act. This new legislation will protect doctors in pro-choice states like Nevada against prosecution from anti-choice states. The Senators will also take to the Senate floor this week to seek unanimous consent to pass the legislation.
“As MAGA Republicans in Congress continue their efforts to ban abortion nationwide, we’re introducing legislation to protect doctors in states where abortion remains legal from facing prosecution by anti-choice states,” said Senator Rosen. “Nevada is a strongly pro-choice state, and no Nevada doctor should be punished by another state’s restrictive abortion laws simply for doing their jobs and providing health care to women in our state.”
The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability. Specifically, the bill will:
- Protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from being subject to laws that try to prevent them from providing reproductive health care services or make them liable for providing those services to patients from any other state. These protections could be enforced by a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice, a patient, or a provider, ensuring a future Department of Justice could not turn a blind eye to state laws that violate these protections;
- Prohibit any federal funds from being used to pursue legal cases against individuals who access legal reproductive health care services or against health care providers in states where abortion is legal.
- Create a new grant program at the Department of Justice to fund legal assistance or legal education for reproductive health care service providers;
- Create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to support reproductive health care service providers in obtaining physical, cyber, or data privacy security upgrades necessary to protect their practice and patients; and
- Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage because of legal services offered to patients.
Senator Rosen has been a fighter against MAGA Republicans’ efforts in Congress to ban abortions nationwide and restrict reproductive rights. Last month, Senator Rosen joined Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and dozens of their Senate colleagues in introducing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, which would make clear that it is illegal for anti-choice states to limit women’s travel for reproductive care. Senator Rosen helped introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act, and in June, she voted in support of the legislation to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard against dangerous state-level abortion bans and restrictions.
