Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), Congresswoman Lois Frankel (FL-22), and Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-28) held a shadow hearing entitled “Fighting for Bodily Autonomy: The State of a Post-RoeAmerica.”  The hearing examined the impacts on reproductive rights and abortion access across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade.  During the hearing, Congresswoman Fletcher asked witnesses about the harmful effects they are seeing in the wake of these decisions and their experiences on the ground in states where abortion access has been severely limited or restricted.  

“I was glad to help convene a group of witnesses that included reproductive rights experts and health care providers to discuss the devastating consequences of draconian laws now in effect in states across the country,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher.  “In my home state of Texas and in several other states, legislatures have effectively eliminated access to abortion.  It is critical that we continue to highlight the real dangers that these anti-abortion laws have caused for women and families and that we do everything we can to preserve, protect, and restore the freedom for Americans to make their own decisions about their bodies, their families and their futures.”

Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher is a leader in the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and has led several efforts to protect access to abortion.  After a Texas Judge banned abortion medication across the country, she introduced the Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act, H.R. 2573, with Congressman Pat Ryan (NY-18) to reaffirm that the abortion pill was appropriately approved by the FDA. 

She is the lead House sponsor of a bill to protect the right to travel between states to obtain an abortion, the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, H.R. 782, which passed the House in the last Congress, and which she reintroduced this year.  She has also introduced legislation challenging the bounty system created in Texas Senate Bill 8.  Congresswoman Fletcher was an original cosponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, H.R. 12, which establishes a statutory federal right to abortion free from medically unnecessary restrictions.