Dem Abortion Bill Co-Sponsor Baldwin: We Codify Roe and ‘Also Take the Step’ of Saying States Can’t ‘Impede’ Right to Abortion

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), a co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, the abortion legislation voted on and rejected in the Senate on Wednesday, said that what the legislation “does is, first, codify Roe v. Wade.” And in addition, because of laws that have been passed “that restrict access to abortion care and full reproductive freedom for women, we also take the step of making it clear that a state cannot impede this constitutionally-protected right, as so many have.”

Host Kate Bolduan asked, “It isn’t just Republicans now, it is your Democratic colleague, Joe Manchin, who’s going to be voting against your bill. He says it goes too far. I mean, is this a surprise to you?”

Baldwin responded, “I am a co-sponsor, as you’ve mentioned, of the Women’s Health Protection Act, and what it does is, first, codify Roe v. Wade. But then, because we’ve seen hundreds of bills introduced and many passed in states across the country that restrict access to abortion care and full reproductive freedom for women, we also take the step of making it clear that a state cannot impede this constitutionally-protected right, as so many have.”

Baldwin added that the bill “keeps the states from interfering with Roe v. Wade and restricting access. [Those are] the additional provisions of the Women’s Health Protection Act. And they need to be there. Because look how many states have taken action like the Texas law that allows vigilantes to go out and try to find anybody who aided or abetted an abortion.”

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