Legislative workgroup urges lawmakers to prioritize abortion access during 2023 session

Discussions over abortion access will likely return to the Oregon Legislature when the new session begins in January.

A workgroup presented a report urging lawmakers to prioritize reproductive health and access to care during a legislative committee meeting Wednesday.

The 20-page report was released shortly before the House Interim Committee On Health Care met. House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, Rep. Andrea Valderrama, D-East Portland,, and Sen. Kate Lieber, D-Beaverton, testified before the committee about the report and its recommendations to prioritize the improvement of reproductive health and access to care during the 2023 legislative session.

The report comes from a legislative workgroup — the Interim Reproductive Health Workgroup — formed by Rayfield in May in response to the impending U.S. Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The Supreme Court decision on Dobbs in June overturned Roe v. Wade, the decades-old decision that guaranteed constitutional protection of abortion rights, returning control over access to abortions to each state.

The right to abortion access has been codified into Oregon law but Rayfield emphasized the right to access abortion in Oregon does not mean abortion is accessible to all.

“Oregon has spent years preparing for the fall of Roe v. Wade," Rayfield said. "Gaps in reproductive health care still exist in many parts of the state and abortion bans across the country make an impact in Oregon. Every person should have the right to make their own decisions on their own health care, no matter where they live.”

The workgroup was tasked with identifying how Oregon can protect and expand equitable access to reproductive health care and other services. It was composed of more than 80 individuals and organizations.

No specific legislative concepts have been submitted but the report includes policy, administrative and budget recommendations to protect, strengthen and expand access to reproductive care, including:

• Improving access to care in medically underserved regions of the state.

• Building up the health care workforce and expanding opportunities for continued learning.

• Protecting individuals in the state from criminal and civil liability for receiving, supporting or providing reproductive and gender-affirming care.

• Closing gaps in insurance coverage for patients.

• Investing in patient and consumer education and outreach.

• Protecting Oregonians from misleading and biased medical claims by crisis pregnancy centers.

• Expanding existing rights to access health services.

The recommendations are "just a starting point," Rayfield added.

Rosenblum referred to the Dobbs decision as a "call to action" to make the state one of if not the strongest for abortion access.

"While Oregon still has some of the strongest protections in the country, we also border a state — Idaho — with a near total abortion ban. As your attorney general, my promise to Oregonians is simple: the Department of Justice will never stop defending your reproductive rights,” Rosenblum said.

Valderrama and Rayfield both spoke about the impact the Supreme Court decision has made in rural and eastern parts of Oregon. One Oregon clinic reported a surge in out-of-state patients, with 24 seen in September alone, Rayfield said.

The Guttmacher Institute estimated there could be a 234% increase in abortion care sought in Oregon and Washington.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Workgroup urges lawmakers to focus on abortion access in 2023 session