Ms. Magazine: On Roe Day, Women in Congress Speak Out on Abortion Rights - “We Are Witnessing an All-Out Assault on Reproductive Freedom”

This year, Roe Day doesn’t quite feel like a celebration. It’s 2022—almost five decades after the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. And yet today in Texas, abortion has been outlawed for the vast majority of those who need one. And in a few short months, the Supreme Court is likely to rule in a case that is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and will impact abortion access nationwide.

To mark the occasion and with our eyes on the future, Ms. asked abortion rights supporters in the House of Representatives to share what the anniversary of Roe means this year in particular, how they see their role in the larger fight for abortion rights, how Congress can act as a counterbalance to a Supreme Court prepared to overturn Roe, and what they wish they could tell anti-abortion lawmakers standing in their way.

Many of these women in Congress fill the top ranks of House leadership, and all of them are members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and leaders in the fight for women’s rights and abortion rights. Each elected official has their own story on the role of abortion access in their personal lives. But a common thread running throughout their reactions is putting pressure on their Senate colleagues to send the Women’s Health Protection Act to President Biden’s desk. And with Roe‘s fate in limbo and women’s constitutional equality still not spelled out in the Constitution, this task takes on a new urgency.

. . .

“With harmful abortion bans and restrictions happening in many states, we must fight harder than ever before to protect the constitutional right to abortion care. Time and again, Republicans have put politics and their personal ideology above allowing individuals to make their own decisions about their health and future. The right to a safe, legal abortion has been the law of the land since 1973, but a Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe puts this access across the country in jeopardy. I have been a longtime advocate for reproductive health, and I’ll continue fighting to preserve the constitutional right first recognized in Roe, and protect access to a safe, legal abortion for all people, no matter where their zip code, income, race, or immigration status.”  

—Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.)

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