Yesterday, the DNC hosted a press call featuring DNC Chair Ken Martin, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President & CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, Reproductive Freedom for All President & CEO Mini Timmaraju, and Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde to highlight Republicans’ attacks on women’s reproductive rights during the three years since Donald Trump’s handpicked judges overturned Roe v. Wade.

Find highlights from the call below: 

DNC Chair Ken Martin

“Today, we find ourselves in a nation that has grown ever more divisive, with leaders who aren’t merely indifferent to the suffering of women and their families – but actually want to target and inflict cruelty on those women,” said DNC Chair Ken Martin. “Three years after the Dobbs decision, we have witnessed maternal and infant mortality rates spike. We have seen Republicans in Congress and across the states chip away at women’s personal freedom and health care access. These anti-freedom attacks go directly against the will of the American people, who overwhelmingly support abortion rights, support abortion access, and in many cases have directly voted to protect it. This is not an issue about right or left. This is an issue about right or wrong, and our party will always stand with women when they make their health care decisions.”

Planned Parenthood Action Fund President & CEO Alexis McGill Johnson

“Pregnant people, some facing immediate danger to their health or lives, have been forced to flee their states and travel hundreds of miles for care that should be available in every community, to everyone who needs it,” said President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Alexis McGill Johnson. “The reconciliation bill is jam-packed with provisions that will harm the health and futures of the American people – it includes one that would defund Planned Parenthood, putting nearly 200 Planned Parenthood health centers at risk of closure. More than 90% of those closures would be in states where abortion is still protected.” 

Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju

“We know that once our rights are gone, we have to work twice as hard to win them back, and that’s why we remember the Dobbs decision. We cannot let our guard down in 

the face of anti-abortion extremism,” said Reproductive Freedom for All President & CEO Mini Timmaraju. “Amber Nicole Thurman, Josseli Barnica, Candi Miller, Nevaeh Crain, Porsha Ngumezi. These are the names of women who have died preventable deaths because of Donald Trump’s orchestration of the end of Roe v. Wade. But we also know that ending Roe was only the beginning of these GOP attacks on our fundamental freedoms. For one, Trump’s budget bill to defund Planned Parenthood will be voted on in the coming weeks. That bill would force 200 Planned Parenthood health centers to close. Health centers that provide cancer screenings, birth controls, STI testing, and so much more. That defunding would mean millions of people looking for abortion care will have nowhere to go.”

Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde

“We know that these extreme, anti-freedom bans are deeply unpopular. For years, a majority of Americans have opposed abortion bans, and in states with Republican leadership like mine, we’ve seen voters rise up to demand reproductive rights protections,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde. “In Ohio, in 2023, voters mobilized during an off-year election in historic numbers to enshrine abortion protections into the state’s constitution. Though they succeeded in passing Issue 1, that hasn’t stopped extreme Republicans from attacking the will of the people and targeting women’s fundamental freedom. Just last week, Republicans in the Ohio state legislature announced their plans to introduce a total abortion ban – without exceptions for rape and incest. In fact, this bill would not only outlaw abortion, it would charge women seeking abortions with homicide, while banning IVF and certain contraceptives.”