Resolution Text (PDF)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), alongside Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Gary Peters (D-MI), led over 30 of their colleagues in reintroducing a bicameral resolution honoring abortion providers and staff by designating March 10, 2026 as “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.”

The Abortion Provider Appreciation Day resolution affirms that abortion providers are valued as they provide reproductive care despite pressures, restrictions, political interference, and threats to their personal safety. It also highlights the essential role that these providers play in providing safe access to reproductive care, including abortions. The introduction of this resolution follows a 2024 report by the National Abortion Federation, which shows continued incidences of violence and harassment like stalking and death threats directed at patients, abortion care providers, and volunteers.

“On the 30th commemoration of Abortion Providers Appreciation Day, we honor the courage and care of dedicated health providers who deliver essential reproductive health care to patients, even amid threats to their own personal safety,” said Rep. Pressley, House Reproductive Freedom Caucus Co-Chair. “Health care professionals and patients alike deserve safety. While Trump and Republicans attack our bodily autonomy and leave patients and clinical staff at grave risk, we continue to fight for the promise of the fundamental right to reproductive freedom.”

“Amidst Trump and Republicans’ attacks on our fundamental reproductive rights, I am proud to reintroduce this resolution to honor the bravery of health professionals who provide critical care to thousands of patients across the country and help them even in the face of violence, threats, and intimidation,” said Senator Hirono. “As we commemorate Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, we recognize Dr. Gunn’s legacy and the crucial and lifesaving care these health care professionals provide and reaffirm our commitment to protecting and securing reproductive rights for all.”

“I’m proud to again lead this resolution with Senator Hirono honoring the abortion providers and clinic staff who help women and their families receive the safe, quality health care they need,” said Senator Peters. “Despite constant threats and attacks from politicians and judges, they continue to work day in and day out to deliver critical and often lifesaving care. I will never stop fighting to protect these providers and the rights of the women and families that they serve.”

The resolution was inspired by Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider who was killed outside his clinic in Pensacola, Florida by a white supremacist and anti-abortion extremist in the first known murder of an abortion provider. To honor his legacy, Abortion Provider Appreciation Day was established on March 10, 1996 as a day to show appreciation for the essential, high-quality care that abortion providers and staff provide to their communities and to celebrate their courage and dedication.

“Thirty-three years ago today a cowardly anti-abortion, Christian Nationalist terrorist shot our father in the back three times for the audacious act of getting up and going to work,” said Wendy Gunn and David Gunn, Jr., the children of Dr. David Gunn. “Dad endured relentless harassment and traveled over 1000 miles a week visiting patients in three states to ensure those patients had access to safe and legal abortion/reproductive services because he trusted they, not the government or religious zealots, knew what was in their best interests. While we are honored and humbled that Abortion Provider Appreciation Day is celebrated each year on the anniversary of his assassination, we are despondent and angered by the increased obstacles to access to the level of compassionate care he died to preserve. Our family continues to stand with everyone involved in ensuring everyone has access to safe, legal abortion and other reproductive services on demand and without apology.”

The Abortion Provider Appreciation Day Resolution demonstrates a commitment to abortion providers and staff by:

• Recognizing March 10, 2026 as “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” to celebrate the courage of abortion providers and the high-quality care they provide to patients and families across the country;
• Lauding communities who proudly support their abortion providers and staff;
• Affirming the commitment of Congress to ensuring the safety of these health professionals, their ability to continue providing the essential reproductive care their patients need, and the right of patients to access abortion care regardless of where they live, free from violence and threats;
• Condemning the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States to limit abortion care, which had a devastating impact on abortion providers and the communities they care for, threatening their livelihoods; and
• Declaring a vision for a future liberated from all abortion restrictions and bans, and affirming the commitment of Congress to working toward this future with providers, patients, advocates, and their communities.

“Today and every day, we celebrate abortion providers who provide time-sensitive, essential care and mourn those murdered by anti-abortion violence,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “In the face of relentless political attacks, disinformation, and harassment, these providers persist in protecting the freedom and health of millions. We are eternally grateful for their selfless commitment to delivering compassionate judgment-free care. Thank you to all the doctors, nurses, clinicians, counselors, and health care staffers for your resilience and dedication to caring for our communities. Planned Parenthood will never stop fighting to ensure that everyone can provide or receive health care and be free from political interference.”

“At a time when abortion providers are facing escalating violence, political interference, and the erosion of critical protections like the FACE Act, this resolution is a bright light in an increasingly dark landscape,” said Brittany Fonteno, President and CEO of the National Abortion Federation. “NAF members–their clinicians, staff, and volunteers–show up every day with extraordinary courage and compassion to deliver vital care, even as they face harassment, threats, and relentless attacks on access. We are deeply grateful to the members of Congress who recognize what we know to be true: abortion providers are essential, and their dedication should always be honored and appreciated.”

“Abortion Provider Appreciation Day was originally started to counter an act of white supremacist and anti-abortion violence. Over 30 years later, anti-abortion extremists are still doing everything they can to roll back our rights and access, even resorting to violence, harassment, and criminalization,” said Poonam Dreyfus-Pai, Interim Executive Director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. “Abortion funds work with providers on the front lines in their communities every day, despite mountains of barriers, risks, and threats. We must unequivocally support and celebrate everyone who provides abortion care, today and every day. Thank you abortion providers, and thank you to everyone who makes abortion access a reality.”

“Today, on the 30th official Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, I’d like to thank Senator Hirono and Congresswoman Pressley for their continued commitment to celebrating the hard work of the clinic staff and clinicians who make abortion care possible amidst ongoing threats and violence,” said Dr. Jamila Perritt, OBGYN in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “Since the Trump Administration came back into office, we’ve seen tireless attempts to discredit the decades of research showing the safety and efficacy of abortion care. As ICE infiltrates our communities and our neighborhoods are militarized, as attacks on our transgender community members continue to rise, abortion providers go to work every day because they know that abortion impacts all of us. No matter who we are or where we call home, we are all deserving of being able to practice bodily autonomy. Since the fall of Roe, attacks on abortion haven’t stopped. Neither has the steadfast commitment of clinic workers around the country committed to the needs of their communities.”

The Abortion Provider Appreciation Day Resolution is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), National Abortion Federation (NAF), National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), Reproductive Freedom for All, National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), the Guttmacher Institute, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, National Women’s Law Center, National Partnership for Women & Families, Power to Decide, Reproductive Freedom for All, Ipas, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Organization for Women, Ibis Reproductive Health, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equality (URGE), National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), and the National Organization for Women.

In addition to Representative Pressley, the resolution is cosponsored in the House by Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Judy Chu (D-CA), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX),  Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Julie Johnson (D-TX), John Larson (D-CT), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Delia C. Ramirez (D-IL), Deborah Ross (D-NC), Andrea Salinas (D-OR), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Frederica Wilson (D-FL).

In addition to Senators Hirono and Peters, the resolution is cosponsored in the Senate by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Text of the resolution can be accessed here.

In her time serving in Congress, Rep. Pressley has fought persistently to protect and advance reproductive justice and ensure fundamental life-saving reproductive health care for all.

• On the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Rep. Pressley introduced the Abortion Justice Act, sweeping, intersectional legislation to address access to abortion care and put forth a comprehensive vision of a just America where abortion care is readily available—without stigma, shame or systemic barriers—for all who seek it, regardless of zip code, immigration status, income, or background.
• Rep. Pressley is a lead co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion care, everywhere. 
• Rep. Pressley is also a lead co-sponsor of the EACH Act, bold legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment and help guarantee abortion coverage—regardless of how a patient gets their health insurance.
• Shortly before the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide.
• Rep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.
• Rep. Pressley has been outspoken in demanding justice for Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old pregnant mother who was declared brain dead in February and was forced to remain on life support due to Georgia’s abortion ban. In June 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned floor speech in which she underscored that Adriana’s case is far too common in the unjust history of denying Black women their dignity, humanity, and right to bodily autonomy – and that GOP abortion bans such as Georgia’s deepen this pain and bar critical healthcare freedom. Rep. Pressley issued a statement after Adriana’s infant son Chance was delivered via emergency Cesarean section and Adriana was taken off life support.
• On August 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement applauding the passage of the updated Shield Act in Massachusetts, signed into law by Governor Maura Healey this month. The expanded Shield Act strengthens legal protections for people seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care in Massachusetts.
• On July 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the final passage of Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill that will rip healthcare and food assistance away from millions of people, including in Massachusetts, push reproductive healthcare further out of reach nationwide, and fuel Trump’s unlawful mass deportation agenda.
• On July 1, 2025, Rep. Pressley filed an amendment to Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill to protect and expand reproductive healthcare.
• On June 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the harmful Medina v. Planned Parenthood ruling, the Supreme Court’s decision to allow South Carolina to bar Medicaid patients from receiving healthcare services at Planned Parenthood.
• On June 24, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined House Democratic Leadership for a press conference to mark the somber anniversary and renew her calls for comprehensive legislation to protect abortion care and expand access to reproductive healthcare.
• On June 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley and the women of the Massachusetts delegation, Whip Katherine Clark (MA-05), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Rep. Lori Trahan (MA-03) joined Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts President Dominique Lee for a press conference in solidarity with Planned Parenthood as they collectively fight to stop Republicans’ latest attack on reproductive freedom in the GOP’s Big, Ugly Bill.
• On May 29, 2025, Rep. Pressley reintroduced a resolution demanding equitable access to reproductive and sexual healthcare for people with disabilities, and designating a day in May as “Disability Reproductive Equity Day.”
• On May 21, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful speech on the House Floor in which she slammed Republicans’ reconciliation bill that would slash Medicaid, which is necessary to ensuring safe, healthy reproductive care and maternal health nationwide.
• On April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley, alongside Reps. DeGette, Chu, Leger Fernández, Fletcher, Davids, Williams, sent a letter signed by 162 Members urging Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore all appropriated funding for Title X providers and coordinate an urgent meeting on the matter.
• On April 2, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied with Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), colleagues, and advocates outside the U.S. Supreme Court for Medicaid patients’ ability to access routine care at Planned Parenthood health centers.
• On March 5, 2025, Rep. Pressley and the Reproductive Freedom Caucus issued a statement condemning Donald Trump’s plans to drop the U.S. government’s case against Idaho’s violation of Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) protections for emergency abortion care.
• In January 2025, Rep. Pressley gave an impassioned speech condemning H.R. 21, Republicans’ cruel anti-abortion bill that criminalizes providers and denies families care.
• In January 2025, Rep. Pressley was announced as Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus for the 119^th Congress.
• In October 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on Josseli Barnica, who died on Sept. 3, 2021 after being denied emergency abortion care in Texas as she suffered a miscarriage.
• In September 2024, in a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Hearing, Rep. Pressley highlighted the harmful and deadly impact of abortion bans in America to date, and outlined in detail the shameful circumstances under which Amber Nicole Thurman died after being denied necessary abortion care in Georgia.
• In May 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on a Louisiana bill that would classify medication abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. 
• In April 2024, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley played “Fact or Fiction” with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf to emphasize the safety and efficacy of medication abortion drug mifepristone.
• Shortly before the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide. 
• Rep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.
• In August 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Fifth Circuit Court decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
• In July 2023, Rep. Pressley, alongside Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Cori Bush (MO-01), and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), reintroduced the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, legislation to help people with disabilities—who face discrimination and extra barriers when seeking care—get better access to reproductive health care and the informed care they need to control their own reproductive lives.
• In July 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of over-the-counter birth control.
• In May 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the FDA Advisory Committee’s unanimous, 17-0 vote to recommend the approval of the first-ever application for over-the-counter birth control. She and Senator Murray also held a press conference applauding the decision and urging the FDA to approval over-the-counter birth control without delay.
• In May 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Ami Bera, MD (CA-06) and Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), reintroduced their bicameral Affordability is Access Act to ensure that once the FDA determines an over-the-counter birth control option to be safe, insurers fully cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs.
• In April 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Texas court ruling on mifepristone, and discussed the Texas case in a recent floor speech in which she affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care and access to mifepristone as essential. She later joined Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabth Warren (D-MA), and local leaders in announcing action to protect Mifepristone in Massachusetts.
• In March 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Schakowsky, Lee, DeGette, Torres and Strickland, reintroduced the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act harmful and discriminatory Helms Amendment and expand abortion access globally.
• In March 2023, Rep. Pressley and Senator Hirono led their colleagues in reintroducing a bicameral congressional resolution honoring abortion providers and clinic staff. 
• In March 2023, Rep. Pressley delivered a speech in which she discussed the pending court case in Texas, which aims to restrict access to medication abortion across the entire nation. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care, and accessibility to the abortion pill mifepristone as essential.
• In September 2021, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Supreme Court’s inaction on SB-8, Texas’ restrictive abortion law. Later that month, she participated in a House Oversight Committee hearing to examine the threat posed by abortion bans and underscored the urgency of the Senate passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. 
• In April 2021, Rep. Pressley, along with Congresswomen Barbara Lee (CA-13), Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), led a group of 131 Democratic members in reintroducing the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act or the EACH Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure that all people, regardless of income, insurance or zip code, can make personal reproductive health care decisions without interference from politicians. She re-Introduced the legislation In January 2023.
• Rep. Pressley has led calls in Congress for the FDA to remove medically unnecessary restrictions on the medication abortion drug mifepristone, and applauded the FDA’s action in January 2023 to allow retail pharmacies to dispense abortion medication pills.
• As Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’s Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, Congresswoman Pressley led the fight to repeal the Hyde Amendments from annual Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bills and in July 2020 published a Medium post on the importance of doing so. She applauded the removal of the Hyde Amendment in President Biden’s FY2022 budget.
• In May 2020, she led more than 155 Members of Congress in calling on House Democratic leadership to ensure that any future COVID-19 relief packages rejected Republican efforts to use the public health crisis to diminish abortion access.
• In August 2021, Rep. Pressley, Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee led more than 70 of their House Democratic colleagues in introducing a resolution in support of equitable, science-based policies governing access to medication abortion care. 
• In January 2023, Rep. Pressley introduced a resolution to condemn all forms of political violence in the U.S., regardless of its target or intent. That same day, she delivered a powerful speech on the House floor slamming Republicans’ harmful, misleading anti-abortion resolution.
• In September 2022, Rep. Pressley hosted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester for a convening on their work to address the Black maternal health crisis and the criminalization of abortion care in states across the nation following the harmful U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. 
• In May 2019, she led more than 100 colleagues in introducing H.Con.Res.40, a resolution reaffirming the House of Representative’s support for Roe v. Wade.
• In June 2019, Rep. Pressley introduced H.R. 3296, the Affordability is Access Act, to make oral contraception available without a prescription. 
• In September 2016, as a member of the Boston City Council, Pressley championed a resolution calling on Congress and President Obama to repeal the Hyde Amendment and reinstate insurance coverage for abortion services.

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