Strengthening Reproductive Health Protections Amendment Act of 2019

The Strengthening Reproductive Health Protections Amendment Act of 2019 was introduced on September 17, 2019, along with Councilmembers Bonds, Silverman, Nadeau, Cheh, Todd, and Allen. This legislation ensures that everyone in D.C. has access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.

The bill's primary purpose is to amend the Human Rights Act of 1977 to recognize the right to choose or refuse contraception or sterilization and to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term to term, to give birth, or to have an abortio, to prohibit the District government from interfering with reproductive health decisions and from imposing a punishment or penalty on an individual for a self-managed abortion, miscarriage, or adverse pregnancy outcomes, and to prohibit employment discrimination against health care professionals based on the professional’s participation in or the fact that the health care professional is willing to participate in, abortion or sterilization procedures.

Impact on Resident Rights and Medical Freedom

D.C. residents have the right, in consultation with their doctor and free from government interference, to make medical decisions about contraception, abortion, or carrying a pregnancy to term. With this bill, the District has the unique opportunity to enshrine a positive right to choose into the D.C. Human Rights Act, leaving no doubt that the District of Columbia stands for reproductive health freedom.

As outlined in Councilmember Grosso's Introduction Statement, the bill will:

• Recognize the right to choose or refuse abortion care, sterilization procedures, or contraceptives;
• Prohibit penalizing self-managed abortion; and
• Prohibit discrimination against health care professionals by a health care provider, based on the professional’s participation in abortion care.

New York’s Reproductive Health Act (RHA)

As states across the country roll back abortion rights and access, New York has emerged as a beacon of hope. After years of determined work by advocates to update our state abortion law, the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) became law in early 2019. New York’s RHA protects our health and rights in three key ways:

1. Treats abortion like health care, not a criminal act. Now, thanks to the RHA, abortion care is no longer regulated in the state criminal code as an exception within the homicide law.
2. Holds New York to the standard of Roe v. Wade. The RHA makes sure our abortion law and our politicians don’t stand in the way of decisions best left to a patient and their health care provider.
3. Protects health care professionals who provide vital care. The RHA ensures that qualified, licensed health care providers can provide early and safe abortion services within their expertise and training.

Improving Access Through Advanced Practice Clinicians

The RHA ensures that qualified, licensed health care providers can provide early and safe abortion services within their expertise and training. By ensuring that patients can seek care from advanced practice clinicians, like nurse practitioners, the RHA improves access to safe and affordable care, particularly for low-income and rural communities. These advanced practice clinicians (APCs) provide a range of care that was once available only from doctors.

National Landscape and Public Opinion

Across the country, reproductive health decisions—and specifically abortion rights—are under attack. Since 2019, ten states have passed laws banning abortion (AL, AR, GA, KY, LA, MS, MO, OH, TN, UT). In some cases, laws like Alabama’s, the strictest abortion ban in the country, are crafted in such a way to force the court to revisit Roe v. Wade. In other states, the laws are meant to make access to abortion so difficult that it will not matter whether Roe stands or not.

Despite these restrictions, the American people support the right to abortion care. 7 in 10 Americans support access to safe, legal abortion care and do not want Roe v. Wade overturned.