Hillsborough Sun

On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the 50-year-old federal right to an abortion established under Roe v. Wade and upset decades of settled law. One year later, 25 million women live in states where abortion is now banned or more restricted than before the ruling was issued. Fourteen states have banned abortions outright in almost all cases.

Ahead of the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), a member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, released the following statement:

“One year ago, the Supreme Court took away reproductive freedom that had been guaranteed for 50 years. The vast majority of people in New Hampshire and across the country support the right to access safe, legal abortion, but this ruling opened the door for states to enact extremist laws blocking women’s access to a range of reproductive health care, from abortion to contraception. I’m fighting to pass legislation that will restore women's personal freedoms and protect the right to privacy. No judge or politician should dictate a person's private health care decisions, and I will not give up this fight until we safeguard the personal freedoms of all Granite Staters.”

Background: 

Pappas has fought to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would enshrine into law vital protections previously guaranteed by Roe v. Wade and restore the right to reproductive care for everyone across America, and signed a discharge petition to bring the legislation to the House floor for a vote in the 118th Congress. 

Pappas is also fighting to pass the Right to Contraception Act, which would guarantee the right for Americans to access all forms of FDA-approved birth control, the My Body My Data Act, which protects personal reproductive health data, and the Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act, which reaffirms the FDA’s authority to approve medication abortion and safeguards health care provider’s ability to prescribe medication abortion via telehealth.

In response to a ruling by a federal district court judge in Texas to suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, the first drug used in the two-drug medication abortion protocol, Pappas joined a bicameral amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to block the ruling.

Original source can be found here.