WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor (FL-14), Lois Frankel (FL-22) and Kathy Manning (NC-06) led 50 House Democrats in urging U.S. House and Senate Appropriators to reject House Republicans’ dangerous medical training policy rider in the final Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill that will worsen maternal health outcomes in our communities.

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs) decision in 2022, physician faculty and trainees across the country have shared the devastating impacts of this ruling – and subsequent abortion restrictions – on medical education. In listening to physicians who are training, teaching, and/or practicing in states that have banned or restricted abortion, the lawmakers found that these laws are interfering in the physician-patient relationship, restricting physicians’ ability to offer evidence-based care, limiting educational opportunities for trainees, and putting physicians in legal peril.

Despite the clear dangers of these harmful policies, House Republicans last month tried to use the FY 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill to advance extreme policies that further attack women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health care services. Thankfully, Republican leadership was unable to get the votes to even bring this extreme bill to the House Floor. Nevertheless, the GOP seems intent on continuing to push their harmful interference in medical education.

“The Dobbs decision and subsequent abortion bans and restrictions are already harming graduate medical education and impacting the care that physicians can provide,” the lawmakers wrote. “If Congress pursues an appropriations bill that further restricts medical training, going against the evidence-based standard of care, we will see even fewer residents who are trained to handle the full range of reproductive health care.”

The lawmakers continued, “As you move forward with negotiations on the final Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024, we urge you to reject Section 541 of H.R. 5894 and any other similar restrictions on graduate medical education to ensure that our communities can train and retain the caliber of physicians that patients and their families deserve.”

The full letter may be viewed here.

Endorsing Organizations include Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women Inc., National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Partnership for Women and Families and The Century Foundation's Health Equity and Reform Team.