{"id":3880,"date":"2024-01-26T21:50:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T04:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/dhingra\/?p=3880"},"modified":"2024-05-02T16:21:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T23:21:36","slug":"defending-the-right-to-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/dhingra\/2024\/01\/26\/defending-the-right-to-choose\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending the right to choose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear neighbors:<\/p>\n

This Monday marked what would have been the 51st<\/sup> anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision that protected the right to abortion across the country.<\/p>\n

Notably, three years before that landmark decision, the people of Washington state passed a referendum legalizing abortion, beginning our tradition of being at the forefront of protecting the right to choose.<\/p>\n

And when the Supreme Court overturned Roe<\/em> last year in the Dobbs v. Jackson <\/em>decision, we were not caught off guard. We had been preparing for that possibility for years, and we leapt into action to make sure that we maintained not only the right to an abortion, but actual access to care \u2014 because a right is no good unless it can be exercised.<\/p>\n

Scholars estimate<\/a> that since the Dobbs<\/em> decision in June 2022, about 60,000 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 14 states where abortion is effectively banned \u2014 because comprehensive data is not collected, these extrapolations are the best information we have.<\/p>\n

I am committed to ensuring this will never happen in Washington state, and I will always fight for reproductive freedom for all. Read on to learn about what my colleagues and I in the Legislature have done and are doing to protect access to abortion, reproductive health care, and gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n

We are continuing our state\u2019s long history of leading the nation on protecting abortion access and providing comprehensive reproductive health care for all. This year, I\u2019m co-sponsoring SB 5960<\/a>, which would protect health care providers who prescribe abortion medications.<\/p>\n

The bill, prime sponsored by my colleague Sen. Noel Frame, allows prescribers to have their names removed from abortion medication bottles and replaced with an identification number or the name of their health care facility. Clinics in states that protect abortion rights saw disturbing increases in stalking and assault and battery in the latest statistics<\/a>, and this bill would help protect medical providers.<\/p>\n

We are building on important work we have done over the past six years \u2014 we have passed some of the nation\u2019s strongest reproductive health care protections:<\/p>\n