WASHINGTON, DC – At a time when abortion and reproductive rights are constantly under attack, Democratic women AGs have stepped up to use the law and their state constitutions to protect access to abortion and reproductive rights.

In an interview by Ms. Magazine’s Mariah Lindsay, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, and Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark explain how they’ve implemented legal strategies like shield laws and multistate coalitions to expand and protect access to reproductive rights against the growing attacks from other states and the federal government.

Key highlights: 

• “A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general across the country have been working in concert to counteract many of these measures and to protect access to reproductive healthcare within their states—through enacting safe harbor or shield laws, defending state laws and constitutional provisions providing residents with the right to provide and obtain abortions, and filing lawsuits against the Trump administration and other states where necessary, to name a few.”

• “‘We are responding not only through litigation, also through guidance and through amicus briefs as well as possible legislative changes,’” AG Campbell said. “‘Our tools are expansive, and we are bringing them all to bear, because we see the attacks that are coming towards our residents here in Massachusetts and elsewhere as being expansive.’”

• ‘Whether it is a lawsuit trying to maintain adequate and affordable pricing for healthcare for our residents, or legislation to protect our patients or providers, or guidance in ensuring folks in Massachusetts know, for example, they can continue to access abortion care or mifepristone or contraception,’” AG Campbell continued. “‘It’s a full response, because the range of attacks coming from the federal administration are expansive and egregious, so we’re using all the tools in our toolkit to fight back.’”

• “‘In Delaware, we guarantee that doctors who performed abortions in Delaware and people who received medication abortions would be safe from extradition from our state, and that we would not honor subpoenas or other processes from states that restricted abortion to Delaware to try to penalize the people who provided those services.’” AG Jennings said. ‘“We also agree we’re not producing records of any woman who comes to Delaware and receives abortion services.’”

• “‘Prior to the Trump administration, we saw consistent attacks on access to reproductive healthcare,’” AG Campbell said. “‘It’s why I established our newly created reproductive justice unit, to ensure the work we were doing was not only fighting back, but also ensuring people had access to reproductive healthcare, including mifepristone, contraception. In addition to that, making sure we were addressing the disparities that exist in healthcare as well, including black maternal health disparities.’”

• “‘…I truly believe we are the patriots who are standing up for the Constitution of the United States, for our federalist constitutional system, and for this country,’” AG Clark said. “‘I don’t think of it as resisting, I think of standing up for what we have and protecting it.’”

• “As the attacks keep on coming and the lawsuits continue to be filed, women attorneys general will be using the tools available to them to both push back and to imagine better futures.”

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