Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) issued this statement applauding President Joe Biden for taking action to protect abortion access nationwide in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling:

“Since a radical, partisan Supreme Court took away 50 years of established legal precedent with the stroke of a pen, conservative states have already begun to endanger women with outright abortion bans. We knew this was coming—Republican extremists made their intentions clear long ago, and with the help of Donald Trump and his stacked Court, they finally succeeded in rolling back women’s rights. 

“Yet while House Democrats did their job to codify Roe and uphold abortion access nationwide by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, the Senate has been unable to enact this crucial legislation because of the outdated filibuster. If they can waive the filibuster to raise the debt ceiling, they can waive it to protect abortion access. In the meantime, Democratic governors like Maine’s Governor Mills and the President himself are using their executive power to defend and protect reproductive freedom. 

“President Biden’s Executive Order today urgently addresses this injustice, but next, we must abolish the filibuster, expand the Court, end partisan gerrymandering, and eliminate the undemocratic electoral college.”

President Biden’s Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services defends reproductive rights by:

• Safeguarding access to reproductive health care services, including abortion and contraception;
• Protecting the privacy of patients and their access to accurate information;
• Promoting the safety and security of patients, providers, and clinics; and
• Coordinating the implementation of Federal efforts to protect reproductive rights and access to health care.

Last week, Pingree and fellow Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee countered attacks on reproductive health care. In the fiscal year 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which was approved by the full House Appropriations Committee, Pingree and other Democratic members voted to support access to medication abortion, boost funding for Title X family planning, and end the Hyde Amendment, a long-standing discriminatory policy that denies low-income women their legal right to an abortion.

In September 2021, Pingree and the U.S. House voted to pass the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would protect abortion access nationwide and finally codify protections established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions. Due to the archaic filibuster, the U.S. Senate has been unable to pass the WHPA. Pingree recently joined more than 100 of her Democratic colleagues in the House in urging the Senate to end the filibuster to pass the WHPA and protect abortion rights. 

Click here to read Pingree’s full statement on the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. 

Learn more about Pingree’s efforts to protect abortion access. 

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