DC wants to be a sanctuary for abortion. Could Congress stop it? | Abortion

The patient came from Texas. Her pregnancy was too far along to end it in that state, where abortions are banned after six weeks of pregnancy.

She was a bundle of nerves: terrified a bounty hunter might report her for seeking the procedure, even out of state; nervous about the logistics of the trip and meeting a new provider; worried the procedure might take longer than expected, or, worse, not happen at all.

Family and friends had pulled together the resources for travel, for the procedure itself, and for childcare, but the patient needed to get back to her kids the same day.

“There was this sense of pressure because it’s like, all right, no matter how busy the schedule is, we’ve got to get this person out so that this person can get their flight to be able to get home,” said Serina Floyd, the patient’s physician in Washington DC, more than a thousand miles away.

In this case, everything went fine – but it underscored the complications of seeking and providing health care in a country increasingly hostile to reproductive rights.

After the explosive leak of the draft of the supreme court decision that would reverse the constitutional right to abortion in the US, providers like Floyd are gearing up for surges of patients from states where abortion would be or is already heavily restricted or banned.

But in this fraught moment, Washington is in a particularly unusual spot. Non-residents frequently seek abortion care here, and local leaders are weighing legislation to designate it an official sanctuary city for abortion. The new law would protect patients and providers from out-of-state investigations or “Texas-style bounty claims”, where ordinary citizens may sue anyone suspected of aiding or performing an abortion.

Yet Congress has outsized control of the city’s laws and finances, with the ability to block any local legislation before it becomes law, to set new laws for the district independent of voters, and to restrict the use of local taxpayer dollars and federal funding to the city – giving rise to worries that Congress could block future laws protecting reproductive health or implement new ones against voters’ will.

While DC residents are US citizens who pay local and federal taxes, they have no representatives to Congress to control these outcomes. “Shadow” representatives to Congress from DC are not allowed to vote on federal laws. The local refrain is that Washingtonians have “taxation without representation”.

Because Congress also has final approval of the district’s funds, federal lawmakers can overrule laws passed locally on how to use DC taxpayer dollars. Congress has blocked previous laws passed by the district that would grant health insurance for same-sex domestic partners, legalize cannabis, and set up needle-exchange programs, for instance.

Using federal funds, including Medicaid, for abortion is prohibited under the Hyde Amendment. But in 1988, Congress went a step further in DC with the Dornan Amendment, also banning the use of local taxpayer funds for abortions – a decision that all 50 states are permitted to make on their own.

In 2020, DC passed legislation protecting abortion rights and access, a…