SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedom of Choice 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States was founded on core 
principles, such as liberty, personal privacy, and 
equality, which ensure that individuals are free to 
make their most intimate decisions without govern-
mental interference and discrimination. 
(2) One of the most private and difficult deci-
sions an individual makes is whether to begin, pre-
vent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy. Those re-
productive health decisions are best made by women, 
in consultation with their loved ones and health care 
providers. 
(3) In 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut (381 
U.S. 479), and in 1973, in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 
113) and Doe v. Bolton (410 U.S. 179), the Su-
preme Court recognized that the right to privacy 
protected by the Constitution encompasses the right 
of every woman to weigh the personal, moral, and 
religious considerations involved in deciding whether 
to begin, prevent, continue, or terminate a preg-
nancy. 
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(4) The Roe v. Wade decision carefully balances 
the rights of women to make important reproductive 
decisions with the State’s interest in potential life. 
Under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the right to 
privacy protects a woman’s decision to choose to ter-
minate her pregnancy prior to fetal viability, with 
the State permitted to ban abortion after fetal via-
bility except when necessary to protect a woman’s 
life or health. 
(5) These decisions have protected the health 
and lives of women in the United States. Prior to 
the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, an estimated 
1,200,000 women each year were forced to resort to 
illegal abortions, despite the risk of unsanitary con-
ditions, incompetent treatment, infection, hemor-
rhage, disfiguration, and death. Before Roe, it is es-
timated that thousands of women died annually in 
the United States as a result of illegal abortions. 
(6) In countries in which abortion remains ille-
gal, the risk of maternal mortality is high. According 
to the World Health Organization, of the approxi-
mately 600,000 pregnancy-related deaths occurring 
annually around the world, 80,000 are associated 
with unsafe abortions. 
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(7) The Roe v. Wade decision also expanded the 
opportunities for women to participate equally in so-
ciety. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (505 
U.S. 833), the Supreme Court observed that, ‘‘[t]he 
ability of women to participate equally in the eco-
nomic and social life of the Nation has been facili-
tated by their ability to control their reproductive 
lives.’’. 
(8) Even though the Roe v. Wade decision has 
stood for more than 30 years, there are increasing 
threats to reproductive health and freedom emerging 
from all branches and levels of government. In 2006, 
South Dakota became the first State in more than 
15 years to enact a ban on abortion in nearly all cir-
cumstances. Supporters of this ban have admitted it 
is an attempt to directly challenge Roe in the courts. 
Other States are considering similar bans. 
(9) Further threatening Roe, the Supreme 
Court recently upheld the first-ever Federal ban on 
abortion, which has no exception to protect a wom-
an’s health. The majority decision in Gonzales v. 
Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Fed-
eration of America permits the government to inter-
fere with a woman’s right to choose to terminate a 
pregnancy and effectively overturns a core tenet of 
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Roe v. Wade by abandoning more than 30 years of 
protection for women’s health. Dissenting in that 
case, Justice Ginsburg called the majority’s opinion 
‘‘alarming,’’ and stated that, ‘‘[f]or the first time 
since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no 
exception safeguarding a woman’s health.’’ Further, 
she said, the Federal ban ‘‘and the Court’s defense 
of it cannot be understood as anything other than 
an effort to chip away at a right declared again and 
again by this Court.’’. 
(10) Legal and practical barriers to the full 
range of reproductive services endanger women’s 
health and lives. Incremental restrictions on the 
right to choose imposed by Congress and State legis-
latures have made access to abortion care extremely 
difficult, if not impossible, for many women across 
the country. Currently, 87 percent of the counties in 
the United States have no abortion provider. 
(11) While abortion should remain safe and 
legal, women should also have more meaningful ac-
cess to family planning services that prevent unin-
tended pregnancies, thereby reducing the need for 
abortion. 
(12) To guarantee the protections of Roe v. 
Wade, Federal legislation is necessary. 
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