OSHKOSH, WI –– Yesterday, patient storytellers, and local partners joined Free & Just, to highlight how Trump Republican officials are working to ban abortion across the country––even in states where it is legally protected. The event featured speakers who have repeatedly sought meetings with Senator Johnson or his team this summer, but have been denied any opportunity to share their concerns about attacks on care – all while the Senate is currently in Summer Recess, a time when our congressmembers should be working in their home states and hearing from their constituents.
New data from Reproductive Freedom for All and Impact Research finds that Americans across the political spectrum are nearly as opposed to a national abortion ban as they are to middle class tax increases and sweeping cuts to Medicaid. Still, Trump and Republican lawmakers continue to launch deadly new attacks on access to reproductive health care.
The event followed Free & Just’s Abortion Stories on the Hill, which brought more than 150 patient storytellers, health care providers, and abortion rights advocates, including folks from Wisconsin to Washington, DC to share how attacks on abortion and reproductive freedom continue to harm women, families, and communities.
Wisconsinites continued the conversation right outside Senator Johnson’s office in Oshkosh and demanded that Johnson and Republicans in Congress stop raising costs, violating our privacy, and making life harder for everyday Americans.
“The truth is that Ron Johnson is failing us and is hurting the people he was elected to help. So we are right here today in Winnebago County, his own backyard, since he won’t meet with us face to face,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, OB/GYN based in Wisconsin. “I’ve seen women bleed to the brink of death and women forced to wait in parking lots while lawyers are discussing their fates. That’s not fine – that is a five alarm fire in American medicine. And Ron Johnson lit the match, fanned the flames, and now he’s telling us to ignore the smoke. He has even openly admitted that he would support a national abortion ban. Ron Johnson, who was elected to serve us, has been failing us since day one and we must continue holding him accountable until we see change in our communities.”
“In 1970, my birth control failed and I became pregnant. Six weeks later, I unfortunately had to travel alone to Mexico City to get an abortion. If Roe had been the law when I needed that care, I wouldn’t have been forced to leave the country to get it. Today, I am grateful that I was able to get the care I needed and make that deeply personal decision for myself. Fast forward to today, I have two healthy children and five beautiful grandchildren,” said Patricia McFarland, a patient storyteller who was forced to travel abroad for abortion care before Roe. “Since Dobbs, we have seen what happens when politicians insert themselves between patients and their doctors. I know other women who have struggled accessing care and I’ve heard other storytellers share that they could not get abortion care in Wisconsin and had to go to Chicago, putting a lot of stress on their families. Ron Johnson, you need to understand compassion, curiosity, and courage and stand up for women and stop pushing a dangerous extremist agenda that puts lives at risk.”
“My role includes working with children and families who are navigating our complex health care system to provide care when they need it the most. So, when our Senator Ron Johnson voted to significantly cut federal funding for Badger Care, I became incredibly concerned about the effects on our communities,” said Kari Zimbric, a nurse practitioner based in Grafton. “Senator Johnson has chosen to give tax breaks to the wealthy like himself and to large corporations like the ones that fund him at the expense of his constituents, the working families of Wisconsin. Badger Care and other programs under the Wisconsin Medicaid umbrella help children and adults with disabilities have consistent access to healthcare providers, therapists, nursing care, medical equipment, and other home and community based services. Badger also covers many parents in the state of Wisconsin and we all know that our kids are healthier when they have healthy parents.”
“I’m training to become a physician because I want to provide my future patients with the best medical care possible. But right now, the decisions being made by politicians, including Ron Johnson, are increasingly getting in between physicians and their patients. Senator Johnson has supported policies that would restrict access to abortion, including Wisconsin bill, Assembly Bill 975 that would have banned abortion after 14 weeks in the state. He also repeatedly supported legislation to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood,” said Maya Krishna Sabharwal, a medical student in Wisconsin. “I’m here because I want to practice medicine in a country where patients can make decisions about their own bodies alongside their doctors, not politicians making those decisions for them. And I’m here because the physicians we are becoming deserve the freedom to provide the care our patients need.”
You can watch the event here. If you are interested in speaking with any of the participants in the event, or learning more about Free & Just, please contact malachi@freeandjust.us.
