Women’s Health Protection Act: Congress Has a Moral and Legal Obligation to Protect Abortion Access

Ms. Magazine featured the congressional testimony of Professor Michele Goodwin, chancellor’s professor at the University of California, Irvine, in support of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA). She testified:

Enacting WHPA will be a substantial improvement in the wake of unrelenting attacks on reproductive health and rights.  The challenges to reproductive health, rights and justice in the U.S. are longstanding and manifold. Forced and coerced sterilization, lack of sex education in high schools, criminal prosecutions and sanctions against poor pregnant women, and high maternal mortality are part of our landscape and history.   

Reproductive justice requires every individual to have the right to make their own decisions about having children regardless of their circumstances and without interference and discrimination. It is time to enact the Women’s Health Protection Act. By passing this legislation, you will protect millions of Americans from harmful abortion restrictions that infringe on rights, burden health, and trample dignity. 

Women’s Health Protection Act: Congress Has a Moral and Legal Obligation to Protect Abortion Access, Ms. Magazine, 06.22.21