{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://ross.house.gov/2022/7/congresswoman-ross-votes-protect-womens-reproductive-freedom-and-right-travel", "Congresswoman Ross Votes to Protect Women\u2019s Reproductive Freedom and Right to Travel for Abortion Care", "2022-07-15", "2022", "2022-07", "Democrat", "House", "NC", "Deborah K. Ross", "R000305", "ross.house.gov", "ross", "https://ross.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) voted to pass two critical pieces of legislation that will protect women\u2019s access to vital reproductive health services in North Carolina and across the country. For the second time, the House passed the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act, which will make the protections of Roe v. Wade the law of the land. The House also passed the Ensuring Women\u2019s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which will stop states from criminalizing, fining, or suing women who exercise their constitutional right to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion.\n\n\u201cAbortion is still legal in North Carolina, and we must do everything in our power to keep it that way,\u201d said Congresswoman Ross. \u201cThanks to Governor Cooper and his allies in the General Assembly, we have succeeded in blocking attempts to impose a restrictive abortion ban. However, Republican leaders in our state have made it abundantly clear that they will take any opportunity to strip away our fundamental freedoms. That\u2019s why this legislation is so critical. We must ensure women in every single state can access the health care they need, and we must protect women traveling to states like North Carolina to receive this care. As Republicans across the country remain dead set on turning the clock back 50 years, I\u2019m proud to fight for women, and I urge the Senate to do the same.\u201d\n\nThe House first passed the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act with Congresswoman Ross\u2019 support in September 2021. The legislation has been updated to address the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization and still establishes the federal statutory right to abortion.\n\nAfter the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion bans in many states immediately went into effect. Republican state leaders have proposed legislation that would block women traveling across state lines to receive abortion care and criminalize those who help. The Ensuring Women\u2019s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act ensures that no person acting under state law can prevent, restrict, impede, or otherwise retaliate against a person traveling across state lines to obtain a lawful abortion. This also includes vigilantes who could be empowered by states to seek out a person for obtaining an abortion.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:49:02Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://ross.house.gov/2022/7/congresswoman-ross-votes-protect-womens-reproductive-freedom-and-right-travel"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8146548643708229, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}