MADISON, Wis. - Lawmakers in Congress have reintroduced a bill they say would ensure access to safe abortions across the country. The move comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a Mississippi law that's viewed as a major threat to its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.

The Women's Health Protection Act would allow for abortions in every state to happen without restrictions that aren't medically necessary. Sen. Tammy Baldwin - D-Wis. - is leading efforts to gather support for the bill in the upper-chamber.

She said it's a safeguard against politicians who are standing between women and their doctors.

"That is why we must pass our legislation, to protect the provider-patient relationship," said Baldwin. "To protect health-care professionals that provide care, and protect the freedom and right of women to access this care."

In a recent survey from Hart Research Associates, 68% of respondents said they believe the constitutional right to abortion should be protected.

No GOP lawmakers are co-sponsors of the bill. Anti-abortion groups have criticized the plan, describing it as dangerous.

From 2007 to 2016, pregnancy-related deaths were two to three times more prevalent among Black women in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Danielle Hurd-Wilson, interim deputy director of field and programs for the group Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, asserted access to reproductive care also is an issue of racial and economic justice.

"Young people - and Black, Indigenous, people of color - should be able to get abortion care free from unnecessary restrictions," said Hurd-Wilson, "such as mandatory ultrasounds, waiting periods and others that shame, stigmatize and deny us timely, confidential abortion care."

In the last decade, almost 500 state laws restricting abortion have passed in legislatures around the country.

While it hasn't been enforced, Wisconsin does have a nearly 200-year-old law that prohibits doctors from performing abortions. At the state level, there have been calls to repeal that ban in light of the Supreme Court case.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week on Idaho's near-total abortion ban.

Idaho v. United States is on the docket for Wednesday.

At issue is whether the ban violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which prohibits hospitals from denying patients medical care because of financial or insurance issues.

The Idaho law has restricted access to reproductive care. Rory Cole is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Washington who is from Idaho and plans to practice in the state.

"A lot of these patients that we've been seeing don't really have a choice anymore, in that sense of it's not about if they want to be pregnant or not," said Cole. "It's about saving their life or their health, and we can't help them in Idaho."

Other states will be watching Idaho's Supreme Court case, and it could have an outsize impact on rural states that ban abortion, leaving patients with few options for care.

Cole said the Idaho law puts doctors in a tough place.

"The wording is so vague in the legislation here, that it makes it just extraordinarily challenging for doctors to kind of know what is legal and what is not legal here now," said Cole, "which is a place that no physician wants to exist in."

Idaho has seen an exodus of medical providers. The state has lost 22% of its practicing obstetricians since its abortion ban took effect, according to a recent report.

"Ultimately," said Cole, "that place of needing to help the people in Idaho and the people here deserving wonderful care was what brought me to basically try and stay in Idaho for residency."




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Vending machines commonly found in workplace break rooms generally contain soft drinks or snacks but one machine in Indianapolis dispenses unconventional items at the turn of a knob.

The Plan B morning-after pill, pregnancy tests and condoms are displayed in a clear glass case inside a colorful blue and orange dispenser. The items provide easy access to protection against an unwanted pregnancy and are free of charge.

Melissa Gruver, organizing director of the feminist organization Indiana Task FORCE, said it operates like a traditional vending machine.

"You just push whenever you want and it falls down, and you reach your hand through the little door and you pull it out, take it with you," Gruver explained.

A 2022 Indiana Department of Health Termination Report indicated 9,600 pregnancies were aborted, with Marion County recording the highest number of unwanted pregnancies. The report also noted the average age of a woman in Indiana who sought an abortion was 27, and 67% of all terminated pregnancies occurred within four to eight weeks of conception.

The state's contentious near-total abortion ban, which was upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court last year, has stoked fears lawmakers may begin restricting a woman's choice of birth control.

Indiana Task FORCE and reproductive health groups All-Options and the Midwest Access Coalition want the emergency contraceptive vending machine to serve as a gathering spot for community conversations on reproductive rights and sexual health.

"We've long been organizing our communities to bring about reproductive justice, which we didn't have before and we definitely don't have it now," Gruver pointed out. "But what we know to be true is that there are more of us that want access to reproductive care than those that try to stop it. We're excited to continue to work to meet this need now, and to organize for a better community."

Gruver hopes to have one dispenser in every Indiana region in the future to add to the single machine currently in an eastside Indianapolis grocery store. She added some universities in the state already have vending machines offering similar contraception products but users have to purchase the items.

This story is based on original reporting by Mary Claire Molloy for Mirror Indy.


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