[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 34 (Monday, February 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 S. 311

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, a word on today's vote on women's 
reproductive rights: The bill the Senate will vote on shortly is 
carefully crafted to target, intimidate, and shut down reproductive 
healthcare providers. Doctors across this country--Democratic doctors, 
Republican doctors--are lining up against the bill because it would 
impose requirements on what type of care doctors must provide in 
certain circumstances, even if that care is ineffective, contradictory 
to medical evidence, and against the family's wishes.
  My Republican colleagues have said some incendiary things about 
opposing this bill. Let me be very clear. Many of these claims are 
false. It has always been illegal to harm a newborn infant. This vote 
has nothing--nothing--to do with that. Read the language. We are 
talking about situations when expectant parents tragically learn their 
pregnancy is no longer viable, and there is a fatal diagnosis. What 
happens in those circumstances should be decided between a woman, her 
family, her minister, priest, rabbi, imam, and her doctor.
  It makes no sense for Washington politicians who know nothing about 
individual circumstances to say they know better than the doctors or 
the patients and their families. The bill is solely meant to intimidate 
doctors and restrict patients' access to care and has nothing--nothing, 
nothing--to do with protecting children.
  Last Friday, the administration announced it was imposing a gag rule 
on U.S. reproductive healthcare providers and trying to restrict access 
to healthcare clinics that provide reproductive care. So this vote 
doesn't occur in a vacuum. It is part of a pattern of actions taken by 
President Trump and congressional Republicans to limit, deny, or 
circumscribe a woman's right to healthcare.
  I urge the American people to do their own research, read the bill, 
and see what it says. Most of you will agree with it. Pay attention to 
the facts and not the false rhetoric. This bill is Washington politics 
at its worst. I will vote no.

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