Congress convenes experts to discuss abortion access bill

A subcommittee of the House Energy and Labor committee is meeting today to discuss a bill that aims to protect abortion access. Known as the Women's Health Protection Act of 2019, the bill would prohibit, among other things, bans on abortion in the early stages of pregnancy and requirements that providers perform mandatory procedures such as ultrasounds. Abortion rights and anti-abortion witnesses will testify. In a prepared statement, Nancy Northup, president of the advocacy organization Center for Reproductive Rights, shares that the bill goes beyond codifying the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to respond specifically to state regulations that restrict abortion access.

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and others filed a challenge yesterday to a federal rule that would require insurance companies to stop covering abortion care and to bill individuals separately. The rule, the plaintiffs argue, will incentivize insurers to no longer cover abortion and increase the premiums of those plans that do cover the procedure.