VAN HOLLEN, DUCKWORTH, MURRAY, HIRONO, LEE REINTRODUCE EACH ACT TO GUARANTEE ABORTION COVERAGE REGARDLESS OF A PATIENT'S INSURANCE

Press Release

Today, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) joined Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-13), in reintroducing the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Care (EACH) Act, a bicameral bill to guarantee abortion coverage--regardless of how a patient gets their health insurance. The EACH Act ends the Hyde Amendment and lifts unjust abortion coverage restrictions for those who depend on Medicaid and other government-sponsored plans. The bill protects the constitutionally-protected right to abortion and helps ensure everyone--including women of color, women with low-incomes, immigrants, and others--can get the reproductive health care they need.

Today, abortion coverage restrictions like the Hyde Amendment impact more than 13 million women--primarily people struggling to make ends meet, women of color, young people, and immigrants. These harmful policies make it harder, if not impossible, for patients to afford an abortion or find a local provider. Abortion coverage restrictions also compound the harms from systemic racism, economic insecurity, and immigration status--ultimately denying millions of patients their constitutional right to an abortion.

The EACH Act would end this injustice and help ensure women don't just have the right to abortion on paper, but also in practice. This bold legislation finally ends the decades-long restriction on abortion for patients on government sponsored health care plans and helps ensure every woman can get the reproductive health care they need--no matter their income, race, zip-code, or how they get health care.

Recent polling data also show that 62% of voters support lifting federal abortion coverage restrictions and believe Medicaid should cover abortion.

In addition to Senators Van Hollen, Duckworth, Murray, and Hirono, the Senate bill was co-sponsored by: Senators Cortez Masto (D-NV), Shaheen (D-NH), Klobuchar (D-MN), Blumenthal (D-CT), Brown (D-OH), Warren (D-MA), Gillibrand (D-NY), Whitehouse (D-RI), Rosen (D-NV), Feinstein (D-CA), Merkley (D-OR), Hassan (D-NH), Bennet (D-CO), Markey (D-MA), Smith (D-MN), Murphy (D-CT), Booker (D-NJ), Sanders (I-VT), and Wyden (D-OR).

Bill text can be found HERE.

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