Cantwell on Fourth Anniversary of Dobbs Decision: “Women Are Worse Off”

Cantwell on Fourth Anniversary of Dobbs Decision: "Women Are Worse Off"

In a spotlight forum, Cantwell highlights the increased expenses & hurdles for women seeking reproductive services

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today marks the fourth anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned the 50-year precedent establishing a woman's right to make her own reproductive choices.

"Four years after Dobbs, women are worse off. They are traveling farther, paying more, and facing greater barriers to care. Since Idaho imposed a restrictive abortion ban, more than one-third of the state's OB-GYNs have left - and women are forced to seek care elsewhere. This strains care in states like Washington that have continued to protect abortion rights. I will continue fighting to restore abortion protections for patients and doctors nationwide," said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

Yesterday, on the eve of the anniversary, Sen. Cantwell joined her Senate Democratic colleagues for a spotlight forum titled Post Dobbs Chaos: Republicans' War on Reproductive Health Care. At the forum, Senate Democrats heard from panelists who have suffered firsthand the consequences of the Dobbs decision and subsequent Republican abortion bans. They discussed how the Trump administration and Republicans are sowing chaos for women and health care providers across the country through ongoing attacks on reproductive rights and women's health care, alongside escalating efforts to enact a nationwide abortion ban.

At the forum, Sen. Cantwell asked panelists about the increased financial burden on women who now need to travel farther for abortion care, creating hurdles like missed time at work and tracking down overnight childcare.

"My colleagues have done a good job of talking about the care, but I don't think anybody is talking about the cost," Sen. Cantwell said. "Is there a hotel? Is there bus service, is there a place [for] my child?"

"Women are bearing these unbelievable tragedies in their life, but they're also bearing all this extra cost because somebody promulgated this rule on our health care system."

Video of her Q&A at the spotlight forum is HERE; a transcript is HERE.

Sen. Cantwell is a stalwart defender of women's reproductive health and has been sounding the alarm since leaked documents in 2022 indicated the U.S. Supreme Court's intent to overturn the decades-long precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

On the first anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, Sen. Cantwell released a snapshot report that detailed the impact of the ruling on abortion providers and patients in the State of Washington. Among other far-reaching impacts, the report found that Idaho's abortion ban led to a 56% surge in abortion patients from Idaho seeking care at Eastern Washington abortion clinics by June 2023. At the 18-month anniversary, she released another snapshot report showing that Washington health care providers were seeing a 46% spike in the number of out-of-state abortion patients they were treating.

On the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs ruling, Sen. Cantwell prepared another report about its continued effect, showing that the decisions harm to Washington's health care system continued to widen - going well beyond abortion and into other health care services. Soon after, she led 15 of her colleagues in releasing a national report that showed women are being denied emergency care and lifesaving treatments in a post-Roe America.