In Lead Up to Anniversary of Roe Being Overturned, Baldwin Leads Bills to Expand Access to Abortion Care
27 million women live in states with abortion bans as a result of SCOTUS overturning Roe and Republican attacks
Baldwin-led bills support out-of-state travel for women seeking care and training for health care providers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of the four-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Patty Murray (D-WA) today introduced two bills to help Americans access abortion as Republicans continue to chip away at women’s fundamental right to make their own decisions about their bodies. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade created a health care crisis across the country, with 27 million women living under abortion bans. Meanwhile, Republicans have doubled down on their efforts to further ban abortion, punish women and doctors, and rip away access to basic health care for women across America.
The Reproductive Travel Fund Act would help offset the cost of travel-related expenses for women who are trying to get reproductive care. The Reproductive Health Care Training Act would support training for health care providers and students who are forced to travel out-of-state just to access comprehensive reproductive care training like abortion.
“Four years ago, Donald Trump, Republicans, and an activist Supreme Court walked our country backwards and stripped women in America of the right to control their lives. For 18-months in Wisconsin, we saw the deadly fallout from the Dobbs decision as women were forced to bleed out in parking lots, develop life-threatening infections, or travel hours across state lines just to get the health care they needed,” said Senator Baldwin. “We need to restore these rights and freedoms for Americans, but until we do, it’s essential that women can still get the abortion care they need and have the ability to control their bodies. I’m proud to lead these bills to help Americans overcome barriers to care and ensure no woman is left without somewhere to turn in their time of crisis.”
“Republicans’ nonstop attacks on reproductive health care are threatening women’s health across the country. From forcing women to carry dangerous pregnancies to term, to defunding clinics that provide legal abortion care—it is clear as day that the Republicans’ goal has always been a nationwide abortion ban,” said Senator Murray. “Which is why Senator Baldwin and I are continuing to fight to ensure women have access to reproductive health care, no matter where they live. These common-sense bills will support critical training for health care providers to provide abortion care, including providers who have to travel out of state for training, and make sure women can freely travel between states for health care. Every woman deserves to have control over her own body and make her own health care decisions. We will keep fighting to restore women’s reproductive freedom across the country.”
The Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act would set up a grant program, authorized at $350 million per year for FY27 through FY31, to help ease the financial burden associated with traveling long distances to access safe and legal reproductive health care. Specifically, the bill would allow the Treasury Secretary to award grants to eligible entities to pay for travel-related expenses and practical support for individuals accessing abortion services. Funds, made available through a competitive grant, could be used for travel, lodging, meals, childcare, and more.
The Reproductive Health Care Training Act would establish a program to award grants or contracts to eligible entities for expanding and supporting education for students, residents, or advanced practice clinicians in states that permit comprehensive training in abortion care. Grants would be available to health professions schools and academic health centers to offset the additional costs associated with training providers in a post-Roe world. The bill would:
- Allow funds to be used for clinical training and development of educational programs in abortion care, instructor and faculty development, stipends to support access to training, and improving care in medically underserved areas, amongst other uses.
- Prioritize funds for clinical training in states that provide comprehensive abortion care, supports training for those from places where abortion care is otherwise limited, and are institutions that are minority serving or provide training to increase the representation of minority health professionals.
Since the Dobbs decision, Senator Baldwin has been leading the charge to restore abortion care across the United States. Last year, Senator Baldwin led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in introducing the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2025, legislation to guarantee access to abortion everywhere across the country and restore the right to comprehensive reproductive health care for millions of Americans. She also co-sponsors the Right to Contraception Act, legislation that would create a statutory right to obtain and use contraceptives and ensure health care providers have a right to provide contraceptives, contraception, and share information about this essential care.
A one-pager on the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act is available here. Full text of this legislation is available here. The bill is supported by Reproductive Freedom for All, National Abortion Federation, National Partnership for Women & Families, Power to Decide, National Network of Abortion Funds, Guttmacher Institute, National Women’s Law Center, and National Asian Pacific American Woman’s Forum. This bill is also co-sponsored by Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
A one-pager on the Reproductive Health Care Training Act is available here. Full text of this legislation is available here. The bill is supported by Power to Decide, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, UW Health, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This bill is also co-sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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