WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Tuesday, top White House officials hosted a meeting with state legislative leaders on protecting U.S. women's access to reproductive health care.
White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein and White House Intergovernmental Affairs Director Julie Chavez Rodriguez chaired the meeting.
State legislative leaders shared the steps they have taken so far to protect access to abortion, as well as plans to further expand care, and discussed ways the Administration can support state and local efforts.
State legislative leaders who attended the meeting included California Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, California Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, Illinois Representative Anna Moeller, Illinois Senator Celina Villanueva, Illinois Senator Julie Morrison, Maryland Delegate Ariana Kelly, New York Senator Liz Krueger, Oregon Senate Majority Leader Rob Wagner, Oregon House Majority Leader Julie Fahey, Oregon Representative Andrea Valderrama, Oregon Senator Deb Patterson and Washington President Pro Tempore Karen Keiser.
The discussion follows the passage of proactive reproductive rights measures in at least 10 states so far in the 2022 legislative session, including in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
These actions to protect and expand access to reproductive health care stand in sharp contrast to a wave of abortion bans and restrictions that many other states have passed.
Oklahoma is the latest among them, having passed a Bill last week that would ban abortions from the stage of fertilization, effectively prohibiting almost all abortions in the state.
But at the same time, The Women's Health Protection Act, a Democrat-led legislation to codify U.S. women's reproductive rights including the right to abortion nationwide, failed to pass in the Senate after it fell short of the 60-vote threshold earlier this month.
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