Ahead of Roe Anniversary, Sen. Patty Murray Briefs Senate Dems on the Harm Caused by Abortion Bans

by Megan Burbank

Five days before what would've been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark national protection for abortion access, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray convened a Senate briefing on the state of abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health obliterated Roe, gutting abortion access in abortion-hostile states and placing a growing burden of care on states like Washington.

Nineteen Senate Democrats attended the briefing, held the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 17, where they posed questions to a panel of stakeholders: Dr. Austin Dennard, a patient plaintiff in Zurawski v. Texas, a lawsuit urging the state of Texas to expand emergency protections for abortion; pro-choice activist Jessica Valenti; and Dr. Serina Floyd, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health.

"I am here, ahead of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, to send a message to all the Republicans who spent years crusading to overturn abortion rights — and who are now working to ban abortion nationwide," said Murray in her opening remarks. "Senate Democrats will not let anyone turn away from the devastation that Republicans have caused, and we will not stop pushing to restore the federal right to abortion."

While the briefing targeted a national audience, Murray emphasized the challenges currently facing abortion providers in the Pacific Northwest, who have been tasked with meeting increased patient demand since Dobbs (and had been in the months before, as Senate Bill 8 brought patients to Seattle all the way from Texas). "I have met with providers in Washington State who are overwhelmed and doing their best to keep up with the surge of patients from states like Idaho with strict abortion bans," she said.

She also described recent electoral victories for abortion and growing evidence that abortion bans are broadly unpopular. "[S]ince Roe was overturned we have seen that every time abortion rights were on the ballot, abortion rights have won!" she said. "And tragically, we have also seen, with brutal clarity, how women have been put in danger and made to suffer because of Republican abortion bans."

Abortion bans, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, are the work of "a shrinking minority." Polling and election results suggest this characterization is accurate. According to the Pew Research Center, 62% of American adults think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases; just 8% say it should be illegal in all cases.

Still, a lack of political will hasn't kept these abortion bans from taking root and causing tremendous harm — what Murray described as "a living hell, a personal nightmare" for women.

In her remarks, Floyd, one of two physicians on the panel, described the "untenable" chore of navigating a shifting patchwork of laws as a provider, and the detrimental impact on the patients she cares for, including one who was forced to travel from North Carolina to D.C. for treatment.

Because the patient was traveling by bus, Floyd recalled, a disruption in travel plans meant the patient arrived in D.C. too late to make her appointment. She had no money to obtain accommodations to stay overnight until her rescheduled appointment the following day, and planned to stay in a homeless shelter. "Her story is just one of the many I could tell, each and every one disturbing and heartbreaking," said Floyd.

The briefing was focused on capturing the problem of abortion access, not potential solutions, although some were suggested. Throughout, panelists shared accounts of the distress, confusion, and physical harm that has filled the vacuum left by national protections for abortion access. As some members of the GOP distance themselves from a proposed national abortion ban, speakers at the Democrats' briefing emphasized the need to restore national protections for abortion, an effort that Democrats in the House introduced last year, but that failed in the Senate.

Due to increased demand from out-of-state patients, said Floyd, "the stress is real" for providers, and something that won't be resolved without federal action. "This is where we need federal legislation … This is where we need to have wins in the Supreme Court," she said. "This is where we need for there to be victories that will help to give us not only just a little bit of a release on the pressure valve, but also momentum to keep going with the fight."

Absent such a policy, it's clear what will happen: more of the strain on providers and mounting distress for patients — a problem that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, Floyd said: "Systemic racism and economic injustice translate into enormous failures of the U.S. health care and economic systems to meet the needs of minoritized and marginalized individuals," she said in her remarks to the gathered senators. "This has resulted in a disproportionate shouldering of the burden of restrictive laws and abortion bans on People of Color, those with low incomes, young people, LGBTQ+ persons, rural communities, migrants and immigrants, those with disabilities, and those experiencing incarceration. The impacts on these communities are, and always have been, the greatest."

📸 Featured Image: Women's March in Washington, D.C., demanding continued access to abortion in 2021. Photo via Bob Korn/Shutterstock.com