WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) joined Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), and other colleagues in participating in a spotlight forum titled “Under Attack: Republicans’ Escalating War on Reproductive Freedom.” At the forum, Senate Democrats heard from four panelists who have suffered the consequences of the Dobbs decision and subsequent Republican abortion bans firsthand and warned about how President Trump and Republicans are only escalating their attacks on women’s health care and working to make abortion impossible to access anywhere—a backdoor nationwide abortion ban.
“I was proud to join my colleagues today to hear directly from those who have suffered due to the deadly Dobbs decision and under Republicans’ anti-choice agenda,” said Senator Mazie Hirono. “Three years after the fall of Roe, Republicans continue to escalate their assault on reproductive freedom, while women across the country experience the devastating impacts of this infringement on their fundamental rights. Dobbs caused chaos and confusion, putting millions of Americans’ lives at risk, but I will not stop doing everything in my power to restore access to abortion and family planning services nationwide and protect reproductive health care providers and their patients.”
The senators’ spotlight forum comes as President Trump has taken direct aim at reproductive health care in his first few months in office, including by: pardoning anti-abortion extremists found guilty of assaulting and injuring abortion clinic staff and announcing that his Department of Justice will largely no longer enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act; attacking mifepristone based on anti-abortion junk science; laying the groundwork to make “fetal personhood” the law of the land—which would ban abortion in every state and curtail pregnant women’s rights; rescinding CMS guidance reaffirming that the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals to provide life-saving care to pregnant women suffering medical emergencies, which might include abortion care in certain situations; repealing two Executive Orders that sought to protect and expand access to reproductive health care in the aftermath of Dobbs; reinstating the Global Gag Rule that targets reproductive health care around the world; scrubbing government websites of vital information about reproductive health care; and appointing notorious anti-abortion extremists for influential roles in his administration, including Pam Bondi as Attorney General, Russell Vought as OMB Director, and John Sauer as Solicitor General—among much else.
Additionally, right now Republicans in Congress are pushing through a budget reconciliation bill that would make abortion care impossible to access nearly everywhere by defunding Planned Parenthood—putting 200 health centers across the country at risk of closure, 90 percent of which are in states where abortion is legal—and by effectively banning ACA marketplace health plans from covering abortion care. Overall, Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act would kick 16 million people off their health insurance through massive cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and overwhelmingly impact women, who comprise most adults covered by Medicaid. Medicaid is the primary source of coverage and the largest single payer for pregnant women’s health care nationwide, covering between one-third and one-half of births in every state across the country.
###