This Monday marks two years since the Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that protected the federal right to abortion care.

Since the decision, 14 states—mostly in the South—have banned abortion with another six with six- to 15-week limits on the procedure. Six states do not have exceptions for when the pregnant person’s life is in danger. One in five women of reproductive age live in states where abortion is banned as young women now have fewer rights than their moms and grandmoms.

In Congress, women lawmakers have led the fight to generate enough electoral power to restore protections at the federal level and prevent congressional Republicans from enacting even more severe restrictions.

Below is a list of the seven Democratic women—whom you may be unfamiliar with—that are on the frontlines of this fight.

1. Katherine Clark

House Democratic Whip (Mass.)

As the highest-ranking woman in congressional leadership and the number-two House Democrat, Clark boasts a formidable bully pulpit to speak out against the attacks on reproductive health care since Roe fell. And she rarely misses a moment to do so, whether during speeches on the House floor, at local events in the Boston suburbs that make up her district, on the national TV airwaves, or while traveling the country to discuss the issue with colleagues.

Clark is unique in that she views safeguarding abortion rights as an element of a broader push to end wage discrimination and gun violence, improve access to affordable child care, and guarantee paid leave.

The issue is also personal for Clark: She suffered a miscarriage years ago that required abortion care to prevent a potentially fatal infection.

If Democrats win back the House in November, Clark will oversee the chamber’s legislative calendar and hold the power to bring pro-reproductive-freedom legislation to the floor without GOP obstruction, a parliamentary wrinkle that adds to the already monumental stakes of the upcoming election.

2. Patty Murray

US Senator from Washington and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee

Across the Capitol, if Senate Democrats are discussing reproductive freedom, it’s probably at the behest of Murray—the third-most senior senator, most senior Senate Democrat, longest-serving woman to ever serve in the Senate, and dean of Washington’s congressional delegation.

Murray—who also holds the distinction as Washington’s first female US senator and the first woman to hold the title of president pro tempore,  a position third in the line of succession to the presidency—has been in the Senate since 1992 and led the fight against conservative attacks on abortion care in the years before the Democratic Party coalesced around the right to abortion care with near unanimity in recent years.

She’s also chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, giving her significant influence over the country’s purse strings—authority that has mainly come in handy during this recent period of divided government when House Republicans have used the appropriations process to attach all sorts of anti-abortion amendments to the funding bills that keep federal departments and agencies humming throughout the year. 

During her three-plus decades in the Senate, Murray has focused on removing the economic burdens that make it impossible for people of color and low-income Americans to get the abortion care they need. And like Clark, she’s approached the issue holistically by viewing the affordable childcare crisis as a threat to reproductive freedom. She secured an additional $1 billion from her perch atop the Appropriations panel for child care and early education programs in the 2024 funding package, despite an across-the-board freeze in domestic expenditures.

3. Barbara Lee and 4. Dianna DeGette

Lee represents California’s 12th congressional district and DeGette represents Colorado’s 1st congressional district. Both members are co-chairs of the Pro-Choice Caucus.

Did you know there’s an entire coalition of House Democrats who have been working since the ‘90s to preserve, protect, and advance policies that promote reproductive freedom for all people?

It’s called the Pro-Choice Caucus and its members are united by one belief: Every person—regardless of where they live, where they’re from, or how much money they make—should have the freedom to decide what’s best for them when it comes to their reproductive health.

The caucus is led by Lee and DeGette, a dynamic duo who bring years of experience and authentic progressive values to the abortion rights fight.

Lee, who’s serving her last term in Congress after an unsuccessful primary campaign to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, will leave behind a legacy as a champion for reproductive justice with a focus on closing the gender pay gap, which she says contributes to the challenges women face in accessing reproductive health care. She’s also the lead sponsor of the EACH Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment—a federal provision banning the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions.

In 2021, almost a year before the Dobbs decision dropped, Lee revealed during a House Oversight Committee hearing that she had a back-alley abortion in Mexico as a teenager more than an entire decade before Roe was decided.

“I’m sharing my story even though I truly believe it is personal and really nobody’s business—and certainly not the business of politicians,” Lee said at the time. “But I’m compelled to speak out because of the real risks of the clock being turned back to those days before Roe v. Wade.”

DeGette, who was first elected in 1996, is the epitome of a workhorse in Congress amid a growing number of show horses. In 2023, she led what’s known as a discharge petition to force a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would restore the protections of Roe. (The petition is seven signatures away from an automatic floor vote.) During the Trump administration, she successfully led an effort to rescind a rule that allowed US employers to refuse to provide birth-control coverage for their employees—a noteworthy cause since reproductive freedom advocates warn the anti-abortion movement is after contraception and fertility treatments next.

5. Lois Frankel

US Representative for Florida’s 22nd congressional district and Chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus

A record 94 Democratic women were elected to the 118th Congress and they each comprise the Democratic Women’s Caucus, the coalition responsible for making sure women’s voices are heard in the halls of power.

Frankel, a six-term congresswoman representing Palm Beach and other southeast Florida communities, leads the DWC in its efforts to protect and expand reproductive health care.

She’s a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee for the Labor and Health and Human Services Departments, where she’s a bulwark against those aforementioned anti-abortion policy riders, including a provision last year to reverse FDA approval of the medication abortion. (The Supreme Court preserved access to the abortion pill in a 9-0 decision based on the lack of the plaintiff’s standing but did not rule on the merits of the FDA’s approval.)

Frankel is also a fierce advocate for access to abortion care for veterans and the US commitment to international reproductive health and rights. Last month, she debated against a House-passed funding bill that would restrict abortion care at Veterans Affairs medical centers and expressed support to safeguard these services for veterans. Earlier this month, she and two other House Democrats introduced a resolution that acknowledges the remaining challenges in global reproductive health, including unmet contraceptive needs, rising maternal death rates, sexually transmitted infections, and the need for humanitarian assistance, as well as recent backsliding in the fight for reproductive freedom domestically its global impact.

And if that’s not enough, she’s been an outspoken critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), who signed a six-week statewide abortion ban that went into effect on May 1.

“Let us make it very clear today: Abortion is a medical decision, and politicians should not be interfering in a personal medical decision between Floridians and their doctors,” Frankel said at the time. “Doctors, nurses, and other care providers should not have to risk criminal prosecution to treat a patient.”

6. Judy Chu

US Representative from California’s 28th congressional district and the lead sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act

If the federal right to abortion care is restored in the near future, Americans will likely have Chu to thank for it.

Since 2013, she has authored the previously mentioned Women’s Health Protection Act, which would permanently enshrine abortion rights into federal law and prevent states from being able to erode that right by passing abortion bans or imposing other medically unnecessary restrictions like ultrasound requirements and waiting periods.

Chu’s bill twice passed the House when Democrats controlled the chamber, but Republicans stalled it in the Senate.

Chu strongly supports at least seven other major pieces of abortion rights legislation, including bills that would protect the right to travel between states for reproductive health care and protect abortion providers from retaliatory legal action. She also backs measures that would eliminate barriers to reproductive care for people with disabilities, address gaps in abortion training, reaffirm the FDA’s authority over medication abortion approval and access, and crack down on “crisis pregnancy centers,” which often distribute harmful disinformation to persuade people against seeking abortion care.

In other words, Chu is leaving no stone unturned in her quest to ensure Americans live in a future where they have bodily autonomy.

7. Laphonza Butler

US Senator from California and former president of EMILYs List

The newest senator brought years of experience leading a top abortion rights group to Congress when she was appointed last October to serve out the remainder of Sen. Feinstein’s term through the end of the year.

As the third president, first Black woman, and first mom to lead EMILYs List, she expanded the organization’s scope beyond helping to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights to voting rights and diversifying the roster of candidates it supported.

And now as the second openly lesbian woman and California’s first openly LGBTQ+ and Black member, she’s picked up where she left off as an advocate. Last December, she joined a letter with 45 Senate Democrats to Sen. Murray and Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, urging them to reject anti-abortion amendments in the 2024 funding bills. During the same month, she introduced 

She’s also using her voice to stump for reproductive freedom champions, including Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, in their respective Delaware and Maryland Senate campaigns. She hopes to pass the baton to two more Black women in a body where she’s currently the only one.

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Original story HERE.