One Step Closer to Codifying Roe!

This Friday, the House of Representatives will vote for the first time to codify the reproductive rights protected by Roe v. Wade.  Even if the Supreme Court rules to reverse Roe, Congress can protect these rights by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA). 

The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) creates a federal safeguard against state-level bans like Texas’ vigilante abortion law and the Mississippi law at the heart of the upcoming Supreme Court challenge to Roe that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. 

As former Acting Solicitor General of the U.S. Neal Katyal wrote in the Washington Post, 

“The rights would now be guaranteed by Congress, making it impossible for the court to trim them back…Since 1973, the questions about reproductive rights have been dominated by the court, not Congress. But now we have an opportunity to recalibrate the balance and guarantee reproductive justice for Americans in every state. We don’t need the court to protect these rights. We just need a majority vote in Congress.” 

Here’s a link to NOW’s action alert about what you can do to urge Congress to pass the WHPA, and how to keep the conversation going after Friday.   

Reproductive justice is the human right to maintain bodily autonomy, to make the decisions to have children, not have children, and to have equitable access to reproductive health care – that includes abortion care. Every person must be able to make their own decisions about their reproductive health and family planning with dignity and self-determination. 

We must push Congress to enact policies like the WHPA that promote social and racial justice for everyone.  The WHPA is expected to pass the House, but faces the same problem in the Senate that’s holding back so much progress—the filibuster, which as we’ve noted before  
suppresses and oppresses marginalized voices and communities across the country. 

We must build a tidal wave of resistance to the Senate’s obstruction and push for action on the WHPA, along with the rest of our justice and democracy agenda.  Let’s work to pass the WHPA in the House this Friday, and then take the fight to the Senate.  

Let’s make this the filibuster’s last stand!