On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) stated that it isn’t just enough to codify Roe v. Wade, “we have to take the additional and necessary step of telling the states that they can’t encumber these rights through the passage of state laws, which we have seen in states across the country.”
Host Ali Velshi asked, “What does success look like to you on a national level that guarantees reproductive rights?”
Baldwin responded, “Well, ultimately, we have to codify Roe v. Wade after the Dobbs decision. But we have to take the additional and necessary step of telling the states that they can’t encumber these rights through the passage of state laws, which we have seen in states across the country. I talked — we already talked about the 1849 criminal abortion ban in Wisconsin, but I can tell you, our legislature has been very busy in recent years putting further hurdles in the way of women seeking comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion care. And we have seen the cases, the statutes in Texas, in Florida that are so draconian, making access for women who needed healthcare virtually impossible, as we saw in the case in Texas of Kate Cox. And I heard similar stories in Wisconsin. … And as you have mentioned, they’ve resumed care in two counties, but elsewhere in the state, there is still no access.”
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