[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 24, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S419-S420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
44TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my neighbor from
Vermont, Senator Patrick Leahy. We also had a very inspiring march in
the capital of New Hampshire on Saturday that Senator Hassan and I both
attended. But I am not here to talk about that so much as about the
44th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. That anniversary happened
this past Sunday. That ruling affirmed the constitutional right of
women to control our own reproductive choices. It made birth control
safer and more accessible for women across this country.
On Saturday, as Senator Leahy said so eloquently, we saw millions of
women and men come together in Washington and Concord, NH, and other
cities across New Hampshire and across the United States and all across
the globe. There were events in all 50 States and in 32 countries. We
came together to defend this constitutional right, as well as other
critical gains for women in recent years. Our message, expressed
peacefully and powerfully, was that we will not allow these gains to be
taken away. We will not be dragged backward.
Despite the progress since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, women's
reproductive health care remains under constant assault. States have
passed restrictions intended to shut down clinics and limit access.
Sadly, Republican leadership here in Congress has repeatedly attempted
to defund Planned Parenthood, which is one of this Nation's leading
providers of high-quality, affordable health care for women, and over
95 percent of the work that is done by Planned Parenthood is done to
provide preventive services and health care to women, such as
mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and other important preventive
care.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration and Republican leaders here
in Congress have exhibited a dangerous obsession with rolling back
women's reproductive rights. President Trump has promised to nominate
Supreme Court Justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. It is
interesting--he has talked about court decisions around LGBT rights as
being settled law, and yet we have the Roe v. Wade decision, which is
44 years old, and for some reason he doesn't include that as settled
law.
Just yesterday, in one of his first official acts, the President
signed an Executive order reinstating the global gag rule, also known
as the Mexico City policy that began with Ronald Reagan's Executive
order. That Executive order prohibits U.S. financial aid to many
international organizations that offer contraception and comprehensive
family planning services to women. But what we have seen with this
Executive order that President Trump signed is a broad expansion of
that Mexico City policy.
The new Trump administration has joined with Republican leaders in
Congress in pledging a much broader assault on women's rights and the
gains women have made in recent years. In addition to terminating
funding for Planned Parenthood, which more than 12,000 Granite Staters
depend on for quality, affordable health care, they have promised to
repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would have profoundly negative
consequences for women's health. The repeal would end ObamaCare's ban
on discrimination against women in health insurance. Depending on how
the law is crafted, it would allow insurers to once again classify
pregnancy as a preexisting condition and to deny many women coverage;
it would allow insurers to charge women more simply because we are
women; it would reverse women's access to contraception without cost-
sharing; and it would end access to preventive health services, such as
mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, without cost-sharing--all
very significant benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
Last week, we also saw reports that at the Justice Department, the
Trump administration plans to eliminate the Office on Violence Against
Women, including all 25 grant programs that have been working to
prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of violence
against women for more than two decades--this at a time when one in
five women in this country still reports being the victim of a
completed or attempted rape.
Taken together, these actions amount to more than a dangerous
obsession with throwing back women's reproductive rights, they amount
to an assault on the safety and well-being of women and girls in the
United States and across the globe. This is exactly what millions of
women and men were protesting on Saturday.
Sadly, people are not just concerned, they are frightened, and
unfortunately with very good reason.
As those of us who gathered and marched on Saturday made very clear,
we are not going to stand still for this assault on our rights and
gains. We are not going to be taken backward. This week, I am
introducing bipartisan legislation to permanently repeal the global gag
rule, with Senator Collins. This rule bans Federal funds for
nongovernmental organizations that provide abortion services or
information about abortion as part of comprehensive family planning
services.
As I said earlier, the Trump administration's reinstatement of the
global gag rule is even more extreme and harmful than it has been in
previous
[[Page S420]]
Republican administrations. Previously, under President Reagan and the
Bush administration, this policy applied only to family planning
funding, but under President Trump's order, it applies to every program
that falls under global health assistance. This means that it puts at
risk 15 times more funding and millions more women and families. This
targets some of the most effective health organizations that work in
the developing world--organizations that are doing great work to
provide HIV services and maternal health care and to counsel women on
the risks of the Zika infection--and it ignores decades of research. We
know that when family planning services and contraceptives are
accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, fewer maternal
deaths and child deaths, and fewer abortions. So if you want to prevent
abortion--something I think we all agree on--then why not give women
and their families access to family planning services? I don't think we
can allow extreme ideology to triumph over the urgent practical needs
of women and families across the world.
The facts make clear that when family planning services are
accessible and contraceptives are affordable, rates of unplanned
pregnancies and abortions go down. Here in the United States, the
abortion rate has dropped to the lowest level since 1943--a success
that is directly attributed to reduced cost-sharing for contraception
under the Affordable Care Act. And what do we have? We have the
leadership and Congress trying to reverse that assistance to women and
families.
In recent days, we have been presented with a fateful choice. We can
stand aside and allow the Trump administration to lead an across-the-
board assault on women's rights--on women's access to health care, on
programs that protect women from sexual assault and other forms of
violence--or we can come together on a bipartisan basis to protect the
important gains women have made in recent years and decades.
Back in the early 1980s, I chaired a committee in New Hampshire that
was working on women's employment in the State. One of the conclusions
we came to was when women are supported, their families are supported.
So this is not just about women in this country; this is about
families. It is about women and their children and their husbands and
their brothers and their fathers and their mothers. This is about what
is in the best interests of the American people.
Millions of Americans joined together on Saturday, peacefully and
passionately, to urge Congress to make the right choice, to protect
women's constitutional rights, to protect our access to health care. I
urge my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle to listen to those
voices, and I urge my colleagues to join with me in ending the global
gag rule once and for all.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, this past Sunday was the 44th
anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I wish to take a moment to reflect on how
far we have come since the Supreme Court decision.
Because of Roe v. Wade, American women for the last 44 years have had
the right, the freedom, the privacy to make their own decisions about
their own bodies with their doctors and with their families, without
the Federal Government barging its way into the conversation and
telling them what they can or can't do with their own bodies.
Roe v. Wade was one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in
the history of women's rights in this Nation, but it was only a start.
In the 44 years since, we have made so much progress with women's
health, and much of that progress has to do with what we accomplished
in the Affordable Care Act.
Millions of American women now have access to health care coverage
that used to be extremely difficult and expensive for a lot of women to
get. Millions of American women now have access to affordable
preventive health care services, including contraception, birth
control, STD screenings, mammograms, breastfeeding support and
supplies, and cervical cancer screenings, and since the Affordable Care
Act was passed, the number of unwanted pregnancies has gone down, in
part, because more women have access to affordable contraception.
There is no doubt that American women have better access to safe and
affordable health care because of Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care
Act, but some of my colleagues are committed to turning back the clock
on women's health and taking away women's access to this lifesaving
care. They are doing everything in their power to get rid of the
Affordable Care Act, and they are determined to see Roe v. Wade get
overturned.
One of President Trump's first Executive orders was so extreme that
it would take away funding for any international organizations that
even talk about whether a woman might want to terminate a pregnancy. We
should never let this happen. If we take away women's access to the
health care they need, it would be devastating--even life-threatening--
for millions of American women.
This weekend, a massive group of women and men and children joined
together in women's marches across the globe. They were there to speak
out, to be heard, to protest some of these issues that would deeply
affect American families and women in particular. I was so proud to
march with them. I was inspired by them--their passion, their
determination, and their commitment to never give up.
The women's marches were truly the biggest outpouring of support and
activism I have seen in my lifetime and certainly that we have seen in
this generation. They were loud and clear statements that we will not
let the government dictate to us how we should manage these most
personal decisions--when you are going to have a family, how big your
family is going to be. Those are decisions that are made by husbands
and wives, by spouses all across this country about what their family
is going to look like.
I urge all of my colleagues in this Chamber to listen to the millions
of Americans, the millions of women who would like to make those
decisions themselves, who would like to choose their health care, who
would not like to be charged more just because they are women, who
would not like to see their health care coverage dropped the minute
they become pregnant, who would not like to be told: You have a
preexisting condition and we will not cover you. That is what we go
back to.
We have to fight for the Affordable Care Act, and we have to make
sure the Supreme Court does not overturn Roe v. Wade. Listen to your
constituents. These marches weren't just in New York; they were in
every State across the country. These marches were real, they were
powerful, they were determined, and these men and women want to be
heard.
Members of Congress, I hope you are listening to them. That is our
job, to represent our country. Their voices must be heard. We shall not
ignore them.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
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