Hickenlooper, Bennet, Cortez Masto Introduce Bill to Protect Patients’ Right to Cross State Lines to Seek Abortion Care

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet joined Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Sheldon Whitehouse, Patty Murray, and Kirsten Gillibrand to reintroduce the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act ahead of the four-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which overturned the Constitutional right to an abortion. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act would block anti-choice states and localities from limiting travel for abortion services and empower individuals to bring civil action against those who restrict a woman's right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care.

"As MAGA Republicans come after reproductive freedom, states like Colorado are strengthening it. Every American deserves the right and privacy to make their own health care decisions," said Hickenlooper.

Politicians in states like Texas have sought to punish women who travel to another state to seek reproductive care, as well as the doctors and employers who help them. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act would prohibit anyone from interfering with a patient's right to access out-of-state reproductive health care, and provide redress when that right is violated. The legislation would also protect health care providers in pro-freedom states, like Colorado, from prosecution for serving individuals traveling from other states.

Hickenlooper has continually fought to protect abortion rights and healthcare in Colorado. In May, Hickenlooper reintroduced the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act to protect abortion providers in states like Colorado from Republican attempts to restrict their practice. Hickenlooper also joined his Senate colleagues to introduce the Women's Health Protection Act to guarantee access to abortion nationwide. He joined 258 members of Congress in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, calling on the court to require Medicare-funded hospitals to provide life-saving care that may include abortion care.

The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act is endorsed by Reproductive Freedom for All, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, ACLU, Guttmacher Institute, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Partnership for Women and Families, Center for Reproductive Rights, Power to Decide, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, National Council of Jewish Women, National Women's Law Center Action Fund, National Abortion Federation, National Network of Abortion Funds, National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda, and the Silver State Hope Fund.

The text of the bill is available HERE.

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