worked closely with the Secretary of Health and Human services to use every tool available to protect families and providers who need abortion care
Use every tool available to protect families and providers who need abortion care.
Occurrences
Abortion care is basic, essential healthcare and we must use every tool available to protect our reproductive freedom.
Evidence
Pressley led 250+ House and Senate Democrats in an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to protect mifepristone access and overturn a lower-court restriction on medication abortion; the release says she wants to "use every tool available" to protect reproductive freedom.
Pressley reintroduced the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act with Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Tammy Duckworth to improve access to timely, informed reproductive health care for women with disabilities, describing the effort as a response to a nationwide assault on reproductive healthcare.
Pressley's campaign issues page says she co-led legislation passed twice in the House to protect and restore abortion access, expanded access to abortion medications and birth control, and worked with HHS to use every tool available to protect families and providers who need abortion care.
Pressley led 250 House and Senate Democrats in filing a Supreme Court amicus brief urging reversal of a Fifth Circuit decision that would restrict access to mifepristone, and said abortion care is basic healthcare and lawmakers must use every tool available to protect reproductive freedom.
Pressley, Murray, and Duckworth reintroduced the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act to improve timely, informed, culturally competent reproductive health care for women with disabilities, including grants, provider training, technical assistance, and an HHS study.
Pressley introduced the Abortion Justice Act, described as legislation to make abortion care readily available without stigma or systemic barriers; the bill would invest in abortion care, require insurance coverage, protect patients and providers from criminalization, affirm a legal right to abortion and miscarriage care, and remove barriers including for immigrant families.
Pressley and colleagues led 163 representatives in reintroducing the EACH Act to guarantee abortion coverage regardless of insurance source, end Hyde Amendment restrictions, and help ensure reproductive healthcare regardless of income, insurance, or zip code.
Pressley and Hirono led a bicameral resolution honoring abortion providers and clinic staff, affirming Congress' commitment to provider safety and their ability to continue providing care, while recognizing threats, violence, intimidation, and restrictions faced by providers.
Pressley introduced a resolution condemning all acts of political violence, including attacks on health care facilities, personnel, and patients; it affirmed access to reproductive health care without fear of violence, intimidation, or harassment and called on the Biden administration to use appropriate authorities to protect facilities, personnel, and patients.
FDA states that mifepristone may be dispensed in person or by mail, and that on January 3, 2023 it approved a modification to the Mifepristone REMS Program allowing certified pharmacies to dispense mifepristone on prescriptions from certified prescribers.
Pressley and Oversight colleagues asked FDA to lift the medically unnecessary in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, saying it placed patients and providers in harm's way and urging immediate elimination of the requirement.
The House Clerk recorded H.R. 8296, the Women's Health Protection Act, as passed 219-210 on July 15, 2022; Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, voted Yea.
The House Clerk recorded H.R. 3755, the Women's Health Protection Act, as passed 218-211 on September 24, 2021; Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, voted Yea.
The Supreme Court held that plaintiffs lacked Article III standing to challenge FDA's actions regarding mifepristone regulation; the opinion notes FDA's 2016 and 2021 changes made it easier for providers to prescribe and pregnant women to obtain mifepristone.
Assessments
The promise is broad and ongoing, so full delivery would require clear evidence that Pressley secured durable protections for abortion-care patients and providers, not just that she advocated for them. The evidence shows meaningful same-term action: she helped reintroduce legislation to expand reproductive-health access for women with disabilities and led a large amicus effort to protect mifepristone access at the Supreme Court. Those actions materially advance the promise and show she used important legislative and legal-pressure tools, but they do not establish that the promised protection was fully achieved.