Readout of White House Meeting with Mayors on Reproductive Rights
Today, Jennifer Klein, White House Gender Policy Council Director, and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, White House Intergovernmental Affairs Director, met with women and allied mayors from across the country to discuss reproductive rights.
From safeguarding public health to overseeing critical infrastructure, mayors lead and implement policies closest to home. As abortion bans go into effect in states across the country, compromising women’s access to critical reproductive health care services, mayors can play an important role in their communities, including by supporting public education and outreach on reproductive health care, supporting the funding of services, sharing accurate information, and taking additional actions to protect abortion access and promote safety.
On June 30, the Women Mayors Network released a letter from more than 65 women mayors and additional male allies in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In the letter, the mayors commit to “actions that safeguard our clinics and our residents who are seeking abortion services or helping others do so and funding services and logistical support whenever possible, and to organize with residents and activists to support actions that expand access to abortion care.”
In the meeting, which was co-hosted by the Women Mayors Network, mayors shared what they are seeing and hearing on the ground as patients from states that ban abortion travel to seek care. The mayors also discussed actions they have taken to support reproductive rights, as well as key messaging and outreach strategies. White House Senior Officials thanked the mayors for their leadership and reinforced the Administration’s commitment to working together to protect access to abortion.
