Hickenlooper, Colleagues Reintroduce Legislation to Protect Abortion Access and Providers from Out of State Extremists

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper joined 29 of his Senate colleagues to reintroduce the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act on the four-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's disastrous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The bill protects abortion providers in states like Colorado-where abortion remains legal-from Republicans' attempts to restrict their practice. The bill would ensure that doctors can continue to safely provide legal abortion care without being held liable for providing services to patients from other states.

"Health care decisions should be made by patients and their doctors, not politicians. Full stop," said Hickenlooper. "Colorado has protected reproductive freedom, and our providers should be able to provide health care without MAGA Republicans in other states trying to control them."

The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability. Specifically, the bill will:

• Protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from being subject to laws that try to prevent them from providing reproductive health care services or make them liable for providing those services to patients from any other state. These protections could be enforced by a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice, a patient, or a provider, ensuring the Department of Justice could not turn a blind eye to state laws that violate these protections.

• Prohibit any federal funds from being used to pursue legal cases against individuals who access legal reproductive health care services or against health care providers in states where abortion is legal.

• Create a new grant program at the Department of Justice to fund legal assistance or legal education for reproductive health care service providers.

• Create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to support reproductive health care service providers in obtaining physical, cyber, or data privacy security upgrades necessary to protect their practice and patients.

• Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage solely because of legal health services offered to patients.

Hickenlooper is a cosponsor of the Women's Health Protection Act of 2025, which would guarantee access to abortion nationwide. Hickenlooper has also introduced the Freedom to Travel Health Care Act, which would block anti-choice states and localities from limiting travel for abortion services and empower individuals, to bring civil action against those who restrict a woman's right to cross state lines to receive legal reproductive care. He joined 258 members of Congress in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, calling on the court to require Medicare-funded hospitals to provide life-saving care that may include abortion care. Hickenlooper also introduced the Stop Comstock Act, which would protect access to medication abortions like Mifepristone. Last month, Hickenlooper was a vocal critic of the federal appeals court decision to block mailing prescriptions to mifepristone, which was shortly overturned by the Supreme Court.

The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act is endorsed by All Above All, the Center for Reproductive Rights, National Council of Jewish Women, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Partnership for Women & Families, National Women's Law Center Action Fund, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Power to Decide, and Reproductive Freedom for All.

Full text of the legislation is available HERE. Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Representative Kim Schrier.

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