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  WATCH

News This Week: 2/13 - 2/19

On Thursday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer announced that the Senate will vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) after the Senate returns from recess on February 28, 2022.

• This will be the first time the Senate votes on standalone legislation to enshrine the right to abortion in federal law. The bill already passed the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2021.
• After the announcement, the Center’s President and CEO Nancy Northup said, “[The Supreme Court] has abandoned its duty to ensure that states do not nullify individual constitutional rights. People are counting on the Senate to do what the Supreme Court will not.”

On Thursday, the Florida House of Representatives passed a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The bill will now proceed to the state senate, where it could be heard as early as next week.

• Similar bills are moving quickly in other states. In Arizona, the Republican-controlled Senate voted Tuesday to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The bill will now proceed to the state House.
• Lawmakers in West Virginia’s House also passed a bill this week that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
• The Women’s Health Protection Act would protect against these types of abortion bans.

Texas’ six-week ban on abortion (S.B. 8) has put intense stress on clinic resources in surrounding states. 

• One clinic in Oklahoma City went from seeing 12 Texas patients in the month of August 2021, to seeing 130 the following month after S.B. 8 passed. Providers have also said that Oklahoma residents are now traveling out of state for abortion care due to two-week wait times in Oklahoma clinics.
• Hope Medical Group in Louisiana has reported that more than 60% of the patients they see are now from Texas.

Leading Maryland House members have proposed a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights in the state that, if approved by the legislature, will appear on the November ballot for Maryland voters. 

• Other states have proposed similar amendments this year, including Vermont and Michigan. 

Coming Up

Floridians for Reproductive Freedom to gather in Tallahassee (Feb. 22)

• A coalition fighting for abortion access in Florida will organize at the state capitol next Tuesday to host a rally, press conference, speakout, and legislator visits. This is in response to the 15-week abortion ban that is moving rapidly through the state legislature and is expected to pass.

Texas Supreme Court to hear challenge to Texas six-week abortion ban (Feb. 24)

• The court will consider whether or not the Texas Medical Board has the authority to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who violate S.B. 8 by providing abortions after six weeks in the state.
• The ban has now been in effect for nearly six months.
• A press briefing will follow the hearing. Details to come.

Did You Know?

Real Housewives of New York City cast member Eboni K. Williams published an op-ed this week defending Roe v. Wade and urging Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. In the article, she writes, “Freedom is an essential and cherished American value. Every person under the age of 49 has lived in a United States of America with the freedom to access a legal and safe abortion… that American way of life, where we are armed with the freedom to choose our own paths and craft our own lives, is in grave danger.”