[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 84 (Monday, May 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2953-S2954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WOMEN'S HEALTHCARE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on women's health and a woman's right to 
choose and the judges we are appointing, the past week marked a low 
point for our country on the issue of women's reproductive rights.
  While an overwhelming majority of Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade, 
a total of 30 States have now sought to restrict the rights of women to 
make their own healthcare decisions, and some would either directly or 
virtually undo the Roe v. Wade decision. Alabama's Republicans have 
passed the most extreme example--that is the one I was talking about--
but Republicans in Missouri and Texas are not far behind. And this is 
not merely a few fringe politicians making a statement way out of the 
mainstream; this is a systematic effort by Republicans in State 
legislatures to restrict women's reproductive rights and ultimately 
overturn Roe v. Wade, even though the vast majority of Americans don't 
want that to happen.
  Meanwhile, here in the Senate, Leader McConnell has lined up a 
conveyor belt of far-right judges who have reprehensible records on 
women's rights.
  Last week, the Republican majority considered a judge, Kenneth Lee of 
California. Here is what he said about sexism. He said it is 
``irrelevant pouting.'' Tell that to women who have been discriminated 
against in so many different ways that we read about. How about Ms. 
Wendy Vitter? All of our Republican friends voted to put this woman on 
the bench. She once promoted the idea that contraceptives cause cancer 
and claimed that Planned Parenthood kills 150,000 women a year. Both 
were confirmed to lifetime appointments. It is incredible. These are 
people way on the extreme--way on the extreme.
  And here comes another one. The Senate is voting on yet another judge 
with a horrendous record on women's rights--Mr. Daniel Collins, 
nominated to the Ninth Circuit over the objection of both of his home 
State Senators. He has defended the rights of pregnancy clinics to 
withhold from their patients that they don't provide abortion services 
and filed an amicus brief in support of the Hobby Lobby's petition to 
deny its female employees contraceptive care. He is a longtime donor 
and member of the Federalist Society, and he has ensconced himself in 
one of the most anti-choice organizations in the entire country. Let's 
make no mistake about it--to read some of the articles about the 
Federalist Society, it was formed with the goal of curtailing women's 
rights. Many of its advocates believe that Roe v. Wade should be 
repealed.
  Let me just call out my friends on the Republican side. When the 
Alabama law came about, the vast majority of my friends on the other 
side stayed silent about the extreme anti-abortion measure in Alabama 
and some of the other States, and then some

[[Page S2954]]

said: We oppose what Alabama does. At the same time, they are 
rubberstamping judges who would do the same thing--repeal Roe. There is 
a direct contradiction here. There is hypocrisy. Republicans who say 
they don't like the Alabama decision and then vote for judges who would 
ratify and repeal Roe or cut back so dramatically on Roe that it hardly 
exists are engaged in subterfuge. They say: Watch this hand. I am 
saying that I am not that extreme. Don't watch this hand where I am 
putting extreme judges on the bench who will do exactly what I say I am 
opposed to.
  It is outrageous. They will be caught. It is outrageous that they are 
on the bench.

                          ____________________