Washington, D.C. — Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper joined U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) alongside 38 of their Senate colleagues to introduce a resolution in support of equitable, science-based policies governing access to medication abortion.
“The district court’s decision earlier this year to invalidate longstanding approval for mifepristone contradicts scientific evidence and threatens Americans’ access to essential health care. Medication abortion remains safe and legal in Colorado, and I’ll keep fighting to keep it that way,” said Bennet.
“Mifepristone is safe, trusted medication that can be prescribed over a telehealth visit,” said Hickenlooper. “We need to protect this access to reproductive rights, so women get the care they need.”
“I am fed up with extremists trying to turn back the clock and deny women reproductive health care – especially after decades of science that show that medication abortion is safe and effective. Any threat to the accessibility of this drug would be devastating to both health care providers and patients across the country, and Senate Democrats are demonstrating with this resolution that we’re determined to fight back,” said Warren.
“In Wisconsin and across the country, the right to comprehensive health care is under attack. We need to fight on all fronts to restore and protect the freedom of every American to make their own health care decisions, and that includes protecting access to medication abortion. Mifepristone is a safe, effective, and sometimes lifesaving medication, and it’s high time politicians and judges leave women alone and allow Americans to make their own decisions about their health, families, and future,” said Baldwin.
Medication abortion accounts for over half of all abortions. Following last week’s announcement that the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to medication abortion access, this resolution affirms the scientific judgment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that mifepristone is safe and effective. It also expresses that law and policy governing access to life-saving, time-sensitive medication abortion care in the United States should be equitable and based on science, and acknowledges the significant harm that would be posed to both health care providers and patients across the nation if mifepristone were sharply curtailed.
In June 2022, Bennet and Hickenlooper joined colleagues urging “bold action” from President Biden to protect the right to abortion after the conservative wing of the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The senators also called on the U.S. Department of Defense to take immediate steps to support and protect servicemembers seeking abortion services. Later that year, Bennet and Hickenlooper introduced the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act to clarify that it is illegal for anti-choice states to limit travel for reproductive health care, including abortion services, and empower the U.S. Attorney General and impacted individuals to bring civil action against those who restrict the right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care. In March 2023, Bennet and Hickenlooper joined 47 of their Senate colleagues to reintroduce the Women’s Health Protection Act, landmark legislation that would guarantee access to abortion nationwide. In May, Bennet and Hickenlooper reintroduced legislation to protect abortion providers in states like Colorado — where abortion remains legal — from Republicans’ attempts to restrict their practice and create uncertainty about their legal liability.
In addition to Bennet, Hickenlooper, Warren and Baldwin, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ron Wyden (D-Wyo.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-N.M.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also cosponsored this resolution.
The resolution is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, The Century Foundation’s Health Equity and Reform Team, National Partnership for Women and Families, Guttmacher Institute, Center for Reproductive Rights, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, and the EMAA Project.
The text of the resolution is available HERE.