Pelosi Statement on Supreme Court Oral Arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Contact: Speaker's Press Office,

202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement in advance of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, challenging Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. The Speaker joined a bicameral amicus brief in the case in September.

"As the Supreme Court hears arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, it has the opportunity and responsibility to honor the Constitution, the law and this basic truth: every woman has the constitutional right to basic reproductive health care.

"Mississippi's radical abortion ban, part of a nationwide assault against women's freedoms targeting in particular women of color and women from low-income communities, is brazenly unconstitutional and designed to destroy Roe v. Wade. Yet again, Republicans are trying to control a woman's most personal decisions about her body and her family and are trying to criminalize health care professionals for providing reproductive care. The constitutional right to an abortion has been repeatedly affirmed, and any failure to fully strike down the Mississippi ban would seriously erode the legitimacy of the Court, as the Court itself warned in its ruling in Casey, and question its commitment to the rule of law itself.

"The House is committed to defending women's health freedoms and to enshrining into law our House-passed Women's Health Protection Act, led by Congresswoman Judy Chu, to protect reproductive health care for all women across America."

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