Richmond Leader

Washington, D.C. – On June 24, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) issued the following statement on the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling: 

“One year ago, a conservative Supreme Court overturned fifty years of judicial precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade, stripping Americans of the federal right to an abortion. Since that time, we have witnessed the increasingly devastating impacts the ruling has had on ordinary Americans, doctors, and our healthcare system. 

“The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation in the world, and the rates of complications are even worse for low-income communities and communities of color. In a post-Dobbs world, millions of Americans have lost access to crucial reproductive healthcare services, and we have heard countless stories of people forced to carry non-viable pregnancies for unnecessary amounts of time. These new restrictions are dangerous and cruel, and jeopardize the health and well-being of pregnant people across the nation. 

“Abortion bans also undermine the efficacy of our healthcare systems and force doctors to make impossible choices between providing critical, life-saving care or following these extreme laws. Government should not insert itself into the healthcare decisions made between patients and their medical providers. 

“Before coming to Congress, I spent nearly eighteen years in the Virginia General Assembly. As the first member of the Virginia House of Delegates to become pregnant while in office, I gained a new perspective on the impact abortion laws have on the provider-patient relationship. As a result, I fought unnecessary barriers to access to reproductive healthcare. As a state senator, I proudly spearheaded passage of the Reproductive Health Protection Act in 2020, making Virginia the first state in the South to proactively expand abortion rights. As a result, today Virginia remains a safe haven for reproductive freedom and abortion care. 

“Now in Congress, I continue the fight to ensure every American has the right to comprehensive reproductive healthcare as a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus. This week, I signed a discharge petition to demand an immediate vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, of which I am an original cosponsor, to codify the legal framework of Roe into federal law. 

“I will never stop fighting to preserve reproductive freedom in our nation. American lives depend on it.” 

Original source can be found here.