[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 8, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2717-S2719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Women's Healthcare

  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, this week, families across our country 
are preparing to celebrate Mother's Day and recognize the hard work 
that women do to support their families and build a brighter future in 
their communities.
  Here in Congress, we should be working to help moms back in 
Washington State and across the country. Unfortunately, instead of 
looking for ways to support women, President Trump has been pushing an 
ideological agenda that undermines their health, reproductive rights 
and freedoms, and economic security.
  When it comes to healthcare, President Trump is working to sabotage 
the care moms and their families rely on. He changed Federal rules to 
let insurance companies sell junk coverage that does not cover 
maternity care, and he is arguing in court to strike down protections 
for women and people with preexisting conditions in all plans insurers 
sell.
  Instead of supporting the Title X Family Planning Program, which has 
a history of bipartisan support and a tremendous track record helping 
women get critical, low-cost family planning and preventive healthcare 
services, President Trump is chipping away at it and working to strip 
title X grants from Planned Parenthood, which serves tens of thousands 
of women in my home State of Washington each year and millions more 
nationwide, including mothers like Shannon.
  Shannon first went to Planned Parenthood when she was 18 for what 
turned out to be endometriosis. It is a condition that causes severe 
menstrual pain and can affect fertility. Thanks to the treatment she 
received at Planned Parenthood, today Shannon is managing her chronic 
pain and raising an adorable little girl.
  When I was in Seattle a few weeks ago, another constituent, Cindy, 
shared how a routine screening at Planned Parenthood saved her life by 
detecting cancer early on and giving her the head start she needed to 
beat it. Today Cindy is not just a survivor; she is a mother because 
she was able to get pregnant after she went into remission.
  We should be supporting providers that help women like them get the 
care they need, not burdening them with restrictions designed to force 
out Planned Parenthood or gag clauses that prevent providers from even 
discussing a patient's right to a safe, legal abortion. Moms deserve 
better.
  Unfortunately President Trump's attacks on women's reproductive 
rights go well beyond his changes to the title X program. Since day 
one, he has been working to jam our courts full of far-right judges to 
appease extreme Republicans who want to see Roe v. Wade struck down. 
When President Trump nominated Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, 
we heard from women and men across the country, concerned about what 
his confirmation would mean. Countless women shared their personal 
stories about what life was like before Roe v. Wade and what the right 
to get a safe, legal abortion has meant to their families.
  So while Republicans continue to press ahead with extreme, harmful 
legislation--like the bill that was just passed in Georgia--and 
President Trump continues to tell outright lies meant to demonize women 
and their healthcare providers, people are going to continue calling 
out those lies, calling out the attempts to turn back the clock, and 
standing in solidarity with women across the country.
  President Trump's harmful attacks on women's healthcare are hardly 
the only time he has ignored how his policies would hurt women and 
their families. He has also cruelly and unnecessarily separated 
hundreds of migrant parents and their children. Yolany is a

[[Page S2718]]

mother who is being detained in Tacoma, WA, while her 6-year-old son 
has been sent all the way across the country to New York. According to 
media reports, they were kept apart for almost 2 months before they 
were reunited. Their story is just one of so many pointless tragedies 
President Trump's heartless family separation policy has caused.
  Moms deserve better, especially when there are so many other 
challenges on which they need us to lead. There is the maternal 
mortality crisis and the appalling fact that our country has the 
highest maternal death rate in the developed world. We know this crisis 
is worse for women of color--for African-American women in particular, 
who face an even higher maternal death rate. Because of a new report 
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we also know that 
three out of five pregnancy-related deaths in our country are 
preventable.
  We should be working together to take action to stop so many mothers 
from dying in childbirth and building on the $50 million Maternal 
Mortality Initiative that I fought to enact in this year's funding bill 
to expand evidence-based programs to prevent maternal mortality and 
advance maternal health equity.
  There is the childcare crisis and the reality that for far too many 
parents, quality, affordable childcare is not available. One mother in 
Washington State told me how she struck out with more than 10 childcare 
centers before she finally found one that could care for her son, and 
when she did find it, it cost her more than her mortgage. We should be 
working to make sure all parents can go to work and know their children 
will be well cared for.
  We should also be fighting for paid family leave so that people will 
have the time they need to welcome new members to their families and 
start building those bonds that will last a lifetime and so that no 
parent will have to choose between a paycheck and caring for a sick 
child.
  At a time when there is so much we could be doing to make life better 
for mothers and fathers and families across the country, it is 
disappointing that President Trump has spent so much time looking for 
ways to make things worse.
  While the Trump administration may not be fighting for families, moms 
are. Just last week, I attended a rally here in Washington, DC, and met 
a mom who came all the way across the country, from Washington State, 
to speak up for families like hers. I know what it is like to be in her 
shoes--or tennis shoes, I should say. I also know that when people like 
her speak up and fight for change, they do make a difference, which is 
why I am so inspired by the moms whose stories I have shared today and 
by the many others who shared their stories with me back in my home 
State of Washington.
  I wish all the moms out there a happy Mother's Day. I know you are 
going to keep fighting for your families, and I want you to know we are 
going to keep fighting for you.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I thank Senator Murray for organizing 
all of us to come to the floor in honor of Mother's Day. I will take 
time to talk about the ongoing attacks on women's health in this 
country.
  I feel a sense of urgency about the increasingly hostile, escalating, 
and unrelenting attacks on women's health by Donald Trump and 
Republicans. From continuous efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, to 
the taking away of title X funds, to trying to repeal the Affordable 
Care Act--all programs that support healthcare for millions of women in 
this country--I have to ask, why? What is the motivation to take away 
healthcare services for millions of women in this country? It is not 
clear why they are doing this. What is clear is the harm they are 
causing women.
  Repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean that insurance plans 
would no longer be required to cover maternity care and birth control. 
Insurance companies would be able to discriminate against people with 
preexisting conditions. Astoundingly, for women, this would include 
pregnancy.
  Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are proposing trillion-
dollar cuts to Medicaid. If implemented, this could endanger tens of 
millions of women in this country who rely on Medicaid for coverage 
during pregnancies and births. Do they even care that these cuts to 
Medicaid are particularly cruel in the face of an infant and maternal 
mortality crisis in our country, particularly for Black women?
  By establishing a gag rule, Donald Trump is forcing healthcare 
providers to choose between providing full and accurate information on 
all available healthcare options for women, including for abortion, and 
hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal title X funding. States like 
Hawaii are refusing to succumb to this unjustified coercion by refusing 
title X funds and are replacing them with hard-earned State funds so 
that providers in our State, for example, can give the necessary 
healthcare to women.
  By trying to pass onerous, new abortion restrictions in States across 
the country, conservative forces are working hard to undermine a 
woman's constitutional right to have an abortion. One institution that 
can stand up to this assault on women's rights and women's health is 
our Federal judiciary. Last month, for example, a Federal judge in 
Washington State blocked the implementation of the Trump 
administration's title X gag rule. In March, a Federal judge in 
Kentucky prevented a new law from going into effect that would have 
restricted abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy. These two recent 
examples demonstrate the importance of our courts in upholding the 
Constitution and the law and in constraining radical rightwing assaults 
on women's health and rights.
  To counter what independent judges are doing, Donald Trump, Leader 
McConnell, and Senate Republicans are packing our courts with 
ideologically driven conservative judges who will be on their 
ideological page. Over the past 2\1/2\ years, they have confirmed more 
than 100 new Federal judges, an overwhelming majority of whom was 
selected by two ultraconservative organizations--the Federalist Society 
and the Heritage Foundation.
  Their efforts to pack the courts continue this week in an upcoming 
vote on a nominee for the Second Circuit in New York, Michael Park, who 
fought to restrict access to reproductive healthcare for women. In one 
recent example, Mr. Park defended Kansas's attempt to defund Planned 
Parenthood by terminating its Medicaid contracts. This would have ended 
the vital services Planned Parenthood provides to low-income patients, 
services such as cancer screenings and access to contraception. 
Fortunately, the judges who heard that case rejected Mr. Park's 
arguments. Yet, now, with his confirmation to the Second Circuit all 
but assured, Mr. Park is set to become the judge in these types of 
cases. It is no wonder that both of his home State Senators oppose his 
nomination.
  In their not being satisfied with packing our courts with judges who 
have ideologically rightwing agendas, Donald Trump and Republican 
leaders are resorting to incendiary, reprehensible, and false rhetoric 
to inflame their base. We have seen this most recently in the debate 
around the so-called Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and 
the vilification of women who seek abortions later in pregnancy. 
Infanticide is already a crime, but you would never know it if you 
listened to Republican politicians and their mouthpieces on FOX News 
and the conservative media.
  In a FOX News op-ed, my colleague from Nebraska, for example, accused 
the Democrats of ``blurring the line between abortion and outright 
infanticide.'' During the debate on the bill, ultraconservative FOX 
News host Laura Ingraham compared Planned Parenthood--the Nation's 
largest maternal health provider that has saved thousands of lives--to 
Adolf Hitler. She said: ``Hitler, just like Planned Parenthood, 
practiced and defended mass extermination.''
  Immediately after the Senate defeated this unnecessary bill, Donald 
Trump tweeted:

       Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent 
     the killing of newborn infant children. The Democrat position 
     on abortion is now so extreme that they don't mind executing 
     babies AFTER birth.

  The President's incendiary and completely false rhetoric on this 
issue has become a rallying cry at his bizarre political rallies across 
the country. Last

[[Page S2719]]

month, in Green Bay, WI, for example, he said:

       The baby is born, the mother meets with the doctor, they 
     take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully, and 
     then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they 
     will execute the baby.

  This kind of rhetoric is simply outrageous. It is not harmless 
electioneering. It is dangerous. It is incitement. It is also provoking 
a dramatic uptick in threats to abortion providers and supporters of 
abortion rights across the country.
  This sustained rightwing attack is taking a heavy emotional toll on 
women who seek to have abortions later in their pregnancies and the 
doctors who provide this essential care.
  Kate Carson, a woman from Boston who sought an abortion after Laurel, 
her daughter, was diagnosed with catastrophic brain malformations in 
2012, wrote a powerful op-ed about her painful decision.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the 
Record Kate Carson's op-ed, dated February 19, 2019.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From USA Today, Feb. 19, 2019]

 I Had a Later Abortion Because I Couldn't Give My Baby Girl Both Life 
                               and Peace

                 (By Kate Carson, Opinion Contributor)

       No one loves my baby more than I do. Her death was a gift 
     of mercy. Now, women like me will always be a scapegoat for 
     policies limiting women's rights.
       People are talking about me again, loudly, unkindly. Even 
     the president of the United States has had his say about 
     families like mine. I have told this story so many times, but 
     I will tell it again as many times as it takes.
       I help run a support group for families who have ended 
     pregnancy after poor prenatal or maternal diagnoses. If 
     you're wondering, ``Who are these women who get abortions in 
     the third trimester?'' We are. I am. Parents who love our 
     babies with our entire hearts. Desperate acts like an 
     abortion in the 36th week of pregnancy are brought about only 
     by the most desperate circumstances and are only available to 
     those who can come up with a lot of money quickly.
       I know. I've been there.
       My daughter, Laurel, was diagnosed in May 2012 with 
     catastrophic brain malformations (including Dandy-Walker 
     malformation) that were overlooked until my 35th week of 
     pregnancy. I did not know much about brain disorders at that 
     point. I imagined developmental delay, special education 
     classes, financial pressure, an overhaul of expectations for 
     Laurel's life and my motherhood. Here were the doctors' real 
     expectations for Laurel: a brief life of seizures, full-body 
     muscle cramps, and aspirating her own bodily fluids.
       When I heard the list of all the things my beloved daughter 
     would not do--talk, walk, hold her head up, swallow--I 
     grasped for what she would be able to do.
       ``Do children like mine just sleep all the time?'' I asked.
       The neurologist winced. Children like yours, he told me--
     slowly--are not often comfortable enough to sleep.
       Our choice was sad--but clear.
       Let me answer some questions you might be thinking: Yes, we 
     were sure that these problems were severe. No, there is no 
     cure, nor any on the horizon. Yes, we were counseled in-depth 
     on our options, including adoption. Because we wanted to 
     spare our daughter as much suffering as possible, our choice 
     was very sad, but crystal clear: abortion.
       I imagined an abortion at eight months would be grisly. But 
     no matter how violent my imagination, it surely could not 
     compare with the suffering Laurel would have endured in her 
     own broken body.
       In Massachusetts, my home state, a later abortion can be 
     obtained only if the life or health of the mother is at risk. 
     So I set off on a 2,000-mile journey from Massachusetts to 
     Colorado to access this abortion. I landed, not in the 
     nightmare I had imagined, but in the safest, kindest, most 
     dignified hands I have ever encountered as a patient 
     anywhere. Dr. Warren Hem at his Boulder Abortion Clinic is 
     one of the few doctors in the country performing this 
     procedure. After a single injection and a couple of hours, my 
     baby was laid to rest in my womb, the purest mercy that I 
     knew how to give my Laurel.
       As the usual hubbub of hate and misunderstanding around 
     abortion swelled to a roar this month, the president unfairly 
     addressed families like mine in his State of the Union 
     address. He hasn't really listened to women like me or 
     doctors like Dr. Hem. He seems to care nothing for the true 
     stories of heartbreak, loss and extreme medical complexity 
     behind abortion later in pregnancy. Instead, his agenda must 
     inflate fear and horror until every last American thinks of 
     unspeakable violence.
       Mercy means something different to each family.
       This is not about abortion. It is about power. This 
     administration needs the public to be angry at women like me 
     and misinformed about what compels women to seek later 
     abortions, which make up less than 1.5 percent of abortions, 
     according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
     But I believe that Americans can hear our story and meet the 
     painful, complicated truth about abortions later in pregnancy 
     with love and understanding.
       And most Americans have compassion for a woman's choice 
     when it comes to her reproductive health care. In fact, 
     nearly 70 percent of Americans do not want to see the Supreme 
     Court completely overturn Roe v. Wade, according to the Pew 
     Research Center.
       Nobody loves Laurel more than I do. Her death was a gift of 
     mercy. Mercy means different things to different loving 
     families, and that has to be OK. To all the families who 
     faced similar circumstances and made a different choice, I 
     honor you. I trust your wisdom. I celebrate your child's 
     brief and beautiful life.
       We must treat each other with love, tenderness and respect. 
     It is horrible, as a parent, to choose between life and peace 
     for our children, especially when we want to give our 
     children both beautiful and precious gifts.
       It is devastating to lose a child. But, unlike most 
     bereaved parents, women like me will live out the rest of our 
     lives as scapegoats, fuel for an agenda that seeks to strip 
     women and families of our reproductive freedoms.
       When I think of my baby Laurel, I feel love and peace. 
     Unfortunately, I cannot be with that peace because there are 
     fresh wounds in the way, the throbbing pain of being hated 
     and misunderstood.

  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, here is some of what Kate wrote:

       I help run a support group for families who have ended 
     pregnancy after poor prenatal or maternal diagnoses. If 
     you're wondering, ``Who are these women who get abortions in 
     the third trimester?'' We are. I am. Parents who love our 
     babies with our entire hearts. Desperate acts like an 
     abortion in the 36th week of pregnancy are brought about only 
     by the most desperate circumstances and are only available to 
     those who can come up with a lot of money quickly.
       I know. I've been there.
       My daughter, Laurel, was diagnosed in May 2012 with 
     catastrophic brain malformations . . . that were overlooked 
     until my 35th week of pregnancy.
       I did not know much about brain disorders at that point. I 
     imagined developmental delay, special education classes, 
     financial pressure, an overhaul of expectations for Laurel's 
     life and my motherhood. Here were the doctors' real 
     expectations for Laurel: a brief life of seizures, full-body 
     muscle cramps, and aspirating her own bodily fluids.
       It is devastating to lose a child. But, unlike most 
     bereaved parents, women like me will live out the rest of our 
     lives as scapegoats, fuel for an agenda that seeks to strip 
     women and families of our reproductive freedoms.

  Madam President, it is outrageous and offensive that Donald Trump and 
his allies in Congress would seek to turn women like Kate into 
scapegoats for their political agendas.
  I have been an advocate of abortion rights for decades, and I fear 
that one day soon, women in this country will wake up and realize they 
no longer have control over their own bodies. What could be more 
intrusive than the government's telling women what they can do with 
their own bodies?
  In the face of these ongoing attacks on women's health and women's 
rights, we will continue to raise our voices. We will continue to fight 
back.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise to speak about the pending 
nominations. I will have comments on both.
  First, I ask unanimous consent that both sets of remarks appear in 
separate parts of the Record that are relevant to those nominations.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.