Garden State Times

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) joined Senate colleagues to reintroduce the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. As states across the country continue to attack women’s freedoms, this legislation would block anti-choice states from limiting travel for abortion services and empower the U.S. Attorney General and affected individuals to bring civil action against those who restrict a woman’s right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care.

“Since Roe v. Wade was overturned a year ago, reproductive rights have remained under a coordinated assault by Republicans across the nation, including the latest attempts to ban medication abortion. It is critically important that we work to protect women who need to travel to other states like New Jersey to receive the health care they need,” said Sen. Menendez. “The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act would safeguard the ability to travel from anti-choice states in order to access this essential reproductive health care without interference. We must protect these rights so everyone, regardless of race, socio-economic status, or zip code, has equal access to essential health services.”

This April, Idaho became the first state to criminalize assisting with out-of-state travel for some seeking abortions. And anti-choice politicians in states like Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri are trying to punish both women traveling outside their state for reproductive care and the doctors and employers who help them. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act underscores the Constitutional protections for interstate travel and provides redress for women whose rights are violated. The legislation would also protect health care providers in pro-choice states like New Jersey from prosecution and lawsuits for serving individuals traveling from other states.

In addition to Sen. Menendez, the legislation was sponsored by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and cosponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jon Fetterman (D-Penn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

This legislation is endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Women’s Law Center, Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Partnership for Women & Families, Catholics for Choice, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, and the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.

As a fierce advocate for women and reproductive rights, Sen. Menendez joined Senate and House colleagues this month in reintroducing the bicameral Right to Contraception Act, legislation that would codify and strengthen the right to contraception, which the Supreme Court first recognized more than half a century ago in Griswold v. Connecticut.

In April, Sen. Menendez led a group of Senate colleagues in introducing the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation (SAD) Act that would ban false advertising related to abortion services by crisis pregnancy centers. The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prohibit deceptive or misleading advertising related to the provision of abortion services and collect penalties from organizations in violation.

In 2022, Sen. Menendez joined a group of colleagues in commenting on the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) proposed rule prohibiting discrimination in health care under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. In the comment letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the Department’s Director of the Office for Civil Rights, Melanie Fontes Rainer, the group of senators applauded the Biden Administration for restoring and expanding key nondiscrimination protections dismantled by the Trump Administration and urged to strengthen protections for underserved communities.

Original source can be found here.