Following the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, Jennifer Klein, Assistant to the President and Director of the Gender Policy Council, and Tom Perez, Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, convened state leaders who have been on the front lines of the fight to defend reproductive rights. Today, state legislators tuned in to hear from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Pennsylvania Speaker Joanna McClinton, Florida Leader Fentrice Driskell, and Texas Leader Carol Alvarado on the impact of dangerous abortion bans and their respective efforts to protect access to reproductive health care.
President Biden and Vice President Harris stand with the vast majority of Americans who believe that the right to choose is fundamental. Directors Klein and Perez emphasized that state leaders are invaluable allies in the Administration’s fight to defend reproductive freedom.
This meeting builds on more than two dozen White House-led working discussions with state legislators in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, including an in-person convening of more than 80 state legislators from 41 states in June 2023, as well as ongoing collaboration with governors, who President Biden convened for a discussion on reproductive rights in the wake of the Dobbs decision. The convening comes the same week that the Vice President kicked off her nationwide Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour in Wisconsin, building on her travel to 20 states and meetings with more than 250 state legislators, health care providers, and advocates in the past year.
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