Senator Murray on SCOTUS Allowing the Texas Abortion Ban to Remain in Effect: “We Need the Women's Health Protection Act”

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, which allows Texas’ SB8—the most extreme and harsh abortion ban in the United States—to remain in effect.

“The Texas abortion law has now been in effect 101 days. 101 days where patients can’t get the abortions they need. 101 days where women are forced to remain pregnant when they don’t want to be. 101 days where abortion clinics in Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico are filled with patients from Texas with no other place to turn. 101 days of a health care crisis.

“And though there is some small measure of hope in this ruling—which allows a path for abortion providers to continue their challenge to this horrifying law—we cannot lose sight of what this means for patients. It means that despite the fact that this law is in clear violation of Roe and 50 years of precedent, despite the fact that it deprives patients in Texas of their constitutional right to abortion—it is still in effect. And that is completely unacceptable.

“A person’s ability to get constitutionally protected health care should not be turned off and on like a faucet. This is about people's lives and their ability to make their own decisions about pregnancy and parenting. Texans cannot continue waiting, and neither can patients across the country. We need federal protections. We need the Women's Health Protection Act.”

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