WASHINGTON, May 29 – Today, U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), former HELP Committee Chair, announced that the Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, June 4 at 10:00 a.m. ET on the tremendous harm, chaos, and heartbreak that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision and Republican abortion bans have created in the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Murray will chair the hearing, titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America.”

“In the two years since Roe was overturned, Republican abortion bans have created a full-blown health care crisis — forcing providers to close their doors and shut down their practices, putting women’s lives in danger, decimating access to maternal health care, and forcing women to remain pregnant, no matter their circumstances,” said Sanders and Murray. “The Dobbs decision and Republican abortion bans have forced women to leave their states under duress or wait until they are near-death to receive care. Providers have been forced to make gut-wrenching decisions about whether to risk jail time to help a women access the health care she needs. The harm of Dobbs has extended far beyond states with extreme abortion bans. In places where abortion remains legal, women are waiting longer for care and providers are struggling to keep up with a dramatically increased patient load.

“The threats to a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her body and her future keep coming — right now Republicans are working to rip away access to safe medication abortion, block women from receiving emergency abortion care that could save their lives, ban abortion nationwide, and restrict access to contraception. And Republican attacks on basic health care are only escalating. The anti-abortion movement has shown its cruelty and utter disregard for women’s lives again and again, and it is essential that we use every opportunity to continue to make clear exactly how extreme right-wing abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive health care have endangered women, hurt families, and rolled back rights.

“We must continue to shine a light on the living nightmare extreme right-wing abortion bans and other health care restrictions have been for women across the country and do everything we can to restore every woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”

Details
What: Senate HELP Committee Hearing titled, “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America”
When: Tuesday, June 4, 10:00 a.m. ET
Where: Room 106, Dirksen Senate Office Building. The hearing will also be livestreamed on the HELP Committee’s website and Sanders’ socials
Who: Witnesses to be announced