Oregon Congressional Delegation Members Speak Against Abortion Restrictions

Oregon's Democratic U.S. senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and U.S. representatives Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt Schrader came together Friday in downtown Portland after a Planned Parenthood event to speak against abortion restrictions happening in other states.

"We are here collectively to send a message that reproductive care is health care, that access to a safe abortion is health care, that health care is a right, and we stand together to fight for that right and we're going to win," Merkley said.

Bonamici, the sole woman in Oregon's congressional delegation, recalled when she was in high school before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision granted people legal access to abortion.

"Wealthy women, they might have been able to find an abortion, but women without resources and terrified teens who are afraid to talk to their parents, they would resort to self-help or a back alley, and women died," she said. "We're not going to go back. We must not go back. Access to abortion is a matter of health care, and it's a matter of life and death."