Warren, Markey spotlight reproductive rights in field hearing

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren brought the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee to Boston today for a field hearing on a topic that not only directly affects roughly half of the population, but is also key to the Democrats' national political strategy for 2024.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell, ACLU of Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose, Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder, Brigham and Women's Hospital physician Dr. Kathryn Fay, and U.S. Sen. Edward Markey are expected to participate as the Economic Policy Subcommittee that Warren chairs convenes a hearing titled "The Economic and Health Impacts of Threats to Reproductive Rights."

Warren's office said the senator aimed to "discuss how Massachusetts has responded to the crisis since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and highlight the growing national threats to abortion access, including the encroaching attacks on medication abortion and fertility treatment, and their economic and health impact on women, especially for vulnerable populations and people of color."

Two cases currently sit before the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. One would limit medicated abortions with drugs like mifepristone, while the other pulls back the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires physicians to provide care regardless of personal objections.

"We have some of the most radically permissive abortion laws in the nation," argued Sam Whiting of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Anti-abortion groups say each case has its merits.

"It would be a good thing, temper some of our abortion extremism here in Massachusetts," Whiting said.

But at a Senate field hearing Wednesday, both of Massachusetts' Democratic senators warned of the impacts.

"If SCOTUS rolls back these policies, no one will be able to access medical abortion," Warren said.

"That could imperil access even here in Massachusetts," Markey said.

The words were echoed by a four-person panel, voicing concerns for those decisions.

"They're trying to go after all aspects of our bodily autonomy," Carol Rose of the Massachusetts ACLU said.

And the results of the 2024 election.

"There won't be this first year training wheels on this Trump administration," Markey said.

For those on the other side, they see the race for the White House in a different light.

"It's always going to be an issue people on the left side issue are going to use as an election issue because the polling swings in their favor.

Nationally, Democrats are hoping to make political hay this year by contrasting their positions on abortion to those of Republicans, especially presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Gov. Maura Healey has been particularly active as a surrogate for President Joe Biden's campaign, especially around issues of reproductive rights.

A CommonWealth Beacon/GBH News poll released in April found that 67% of Massachusetts residents feel that the Supreme Court striking down the federal right to abortion was the wrong decision. The poll conducted by the MassINC Polling Group found that 19 percent said it was the right decision and 14 percent said they did not know or refused to answer.

And reproductive rights is a big issue for young voters, always a coveted bloc, this year. The biannual Harvard Youth Poll released last month said that while inflation "dominated as the leading concern," reproductive rights was the only issue deemed more of a concern to young people in head-to-head matchups with other issues.