00:00Senator Baldwin. Thank you. I want to thank you Senator Murray and Chairman
00:05Sanders for holding this hearing because in the wake of the overturning of Roe, I
00:11think we must keep drawing attention to the dire consequences on women's health
00:16across this country and particularly in my home state, states like Wisconsin.
00:22Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, generations of women in this
00:28country had only known a country with the right to abortion care and they only
00:34knew a country where every woman had the freedom to make their own choices about
00:38if and when to start a family. But when those freedoms were stripped away,
00:45Wisconsinites were sent back to the year 1849, the era they live under a
00:53pre-Civil War criminal ban on abortion care. And I've heard such horrifying
01:00stories since that ban went into effect about women bleeding out, about
01:04contracting life-threatening infections before receiving care, about women forced
01:10to travel hours and hours away from their families and support systems to
01:15receive care for an unviable pregnancy. Thankfully, more recently, Wisconsin has
01:22been able to take important steps to restore abortion services in three
01:26communities, three counties. We have 72 counties. However, without access to care
01:33statewide, too many Wisconsinites must still drive hours, take time off work,
01:38arrange for child care, and face medically unnecessary barriers before
01:43getting the health care they need. And while some people debate whether it
01:48should be the state or the federal government who should decide abortion
01:52rights, I believe it's women who should decide about these issues. And that's why
01:57we must pass the Women's Health Protection Act, which I author, ensuring
02:04that women have the right to make health care decisions and freedom to access
02:09abortion care no matter where they live. Dr. Linden, I'm so glad that you are here
02:14today to share your experience about providing care in Wisconsin. Your
02:19testimony highlights the impossible landscape that you and other
02:24providers have been forced to navigate in the wake of the Dobbs decision and
02:29the effects on real patients in the state of Wisconsin. These stories aren't
02:34hypotheticals. They're about real people. And I wanted you to tell us a little bit
02:41more about how patients in Wisconsin were affected immediately after Dobbs.
02:46How was the Dobbs decision and Wisconsin's archaic 1849 law, how has
02:54that harmed Wisconsinites? And I imagine there were people who had appointments
02:58for care on the day that the Dobbs decision came out. Absolutely. Thank you,
03:03Senator Baldwin. So yeah, you're exactly right. Because of the 1849 law, this was
03:08not a law that if Dobbs was passed, then we had 30 days or 90 days or whatever. It
03:13was, of course, as we've mentioned a couple times, there have been questions about the
03:17enforceability. But because of the risks of $10,000 fines and six years in prison,
03:22that went into effect for us immediately. So at 9, 10 a.m. on the 24th of June, we
03:29ceased providing care that moment. We had patients in our clinic, we had patients
03:33scheduled the next day, and staff members had to go out into the lobby and tell
03:37them, because of something that just happened states away, you cannot receive
03:42care here today. And it was it was incredibly difficult for patients and
03:47staff to try to figure out next steps to help them get health care. Thank you. I've
03:52introduced legislation that I just described, the Women's Health Protection
03:57Act. This bill would guarantee that doctors have the freedom to provide
04:02abortion care and give patients the ability to receive the care they need
04:06nationwide. How would passage of that act impact in Wisconsin and improve care for
04:15patients right now? Thank you. And as a Wisconsinite, I do want to thank you very
04:20much for your leadership on this issue. As I mentioned, we have, and as you
04:25mentioned, we've resumed abortion care in Wisconsin. But the future of abortion
04:28access in Wisconsin is anything but clear. Even as we are providing abortion
04:33care right now, we are still practicing under medically unnecessary restrictions,
04:37including 24-hour waiting periods, ban on telemedicine, parental consent law,
04:41mandatory ultrasounds, etc. So as a physician who sees the impact of these
04:46restrictions every single day, I can tell you that federal protections for
04:50abortion access will only improve the care that we can provide our patients in
04:54Wisconsin. Thank you. And what do you want us to know about the current state of
05:02abortion? Tell us how these barriers that you just described that are in part of
05:07state law, how do they affect patients that you see? I think first and
05:14foremost, they delay care. We know, as you mentioned, abortion is only accessible in
05:19Wisconsin right now in three counties. Our state is a lot bigger than three
05:24counties. So patients are already having to travel long distances. We know that
05:2824-hour bans are often not 24 hours. We have a same physician law in the state
05:32of Wisconsin. So the patient has the same physician for a counseling appointment is
05:37to receive their medication abortion. So oftentimes between those two appointments,
05:41it can be a week or plus before they can come back. And abortion is an incredibly
05:45time-sensitive procedure. So all of these additional restrictions are creating
05:50hoops and barriers for patients to receive routine or what should be
05:54routine health care. Thank you.
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