[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 85 (Tuesday, May 21, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2989-S2991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Abortion

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to start today by expressing my 
appreciation to all of my colleagues who will be out here today 
speaking out and to the women and men nationwide who are doing the same 
today in their own communities.
  In the last few weeks, we have seen some of the most blatant and 
cruel efforts yet to deny women access to a safe, legal abortion. We 
have seen legislation so extreme, it would even block a 12-year-old 
survivor of rape from getting an abortion and sentence healthcare 
providers to prison for providing safe, medically sound care to their 
patients, which is their responsibility.
  The extreme politicians behind these cruel abortion bans are not 
stopping in Alabama or Missouri or anywhere else; they want to take 
these bans all the way to the Supreme Court. They want to allow Brett 
Kavanaugh to do what President Trump and Republicans chose him to do--
roll back the decision in Roe v. Wade that established a woman's 
constitutionally protected right to make her own decisions about her 
own body and her own healthcare.
  They are pushing for this even though they know as well as we do that 
without the ability to exercise that right, women lose their lives; 
even though they know just as well as we do that without this right, 
doctors will be blocked from providing medically appropriate care. Let 
me be frank. Extreme conservatives will push these abortion bans all 
the way to the Supreme Court even though they know--or maybe even 
because they do know--that in a world where women cannot control what 
happens to their own bodies, they are less able to plan their family 
and stay financially secure and independent. That means they are less 
free and less equal.
  I am not going to stand for that, and Senate Democrats are not going 
to stand for that either. I am proud to be on the floor today with a 
number of my colleagues who will be here standing for what our 
Constitution confirms is true: Women have the right to access safe, 
legal abortion, and this makes our country stronger because women are 
absolutely critical to our country's strength. I am proud to be making 
clear that even in the face of relentless attacks on women's health and 
rights, we are not going to back down one bit.
  The truth is, there are certain extreme politicians around the 
country who want to take us backward to the ``Mad Men'' era or, 
honestly, quite a bit before that. But they aren't speaking for our 
country--quite the opposite. In fact, the vast majority of women and 
men nationwide, including those from all different backgrounds, agree 
that abortion should be safe and it should be legal, just as our 
Constitution says. Those people are watching now. They are speaking up, 
and they are absolutely going to remember who stood up to protect 
women's health and rights and who pushed to take those rights away.
  We have a number of Senators who will be speaking about this today, 
and I want to thank them for being here today.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, while she is on the floor, I want to 
commend my northwest colleague and friend, Senator Murray, for all of 
her leadership, constantly coming to the floor and leading us on this 
enormous health challenge--a challenge that is really existential for 
so many women across the country.
  Right now in State capitals across the land, Republican lawmakers are 
passing extreme bills that throw in the trash can 45 years of settled 
law on reproductive health. This is an open, coordinated attack on Roe 
v. Wade and a woman's right to choose the healthcare she needs. These 
Republican lawmakers are passing bills that are not only harmful, but 
they are overwhelmingly opposed by the public--bills with harsh 
criminal penalties for women and doctors, bills with no exceptions for 
cases of rape or incest, bills that explicitly compare women getting 
medical care to the Holocaust. Let me repeat that--bills that 
explicitly compare women getting medical care to the Holocaust.
  I want to be clear on what this is all about. The party of Donald 
Trump is insisting on government control of women's bodies. That is 
what is on the table in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and elsewhere--
government control of women's bodies.
  Millions of women across the land are watching in anger and in fear 
as all of this is playing out. I have heard from many of them back home 
in Oregon. I heard it last weekend. I have four town meetings in the 
rural part of Oregon coming up; I am going to hear it again. Women are 
afraid for the future--their future and their family's future--because 
they know what is at stake with this coordinated attack on their 
rights.
  First, it puts women's lives in danger.
  The reality is, abortions will still happen in States that pass these 
laws, but those abortions will happen later, and they will be unsafe. 
Women are going to die. That is a fact. Women are going to die because 
of these restrictions. If you need proof, just look at the figures 
before and after the Roe case. In the decades before Roe, thousands of 
women died due to unsafe abortions. And those are only the ones people 
know about. That doesn't even take into consideration the unnamed, the 
unknown victims of those misguided policies. After Roe was decided in 
1973, women's healthcare got safer. Now, once again, there is an effort 
to undermine that safety of women.
  Second, in key ways, the future these restrictive laws are creating 
is worse for women and healthcare professionals than before Roe.
  What we are talking about now is jailing doctors for life. We are 
talking about treating women like hardened criminals after they get a 
medical procedure. Women in some places are facing the prospect that 
they may need to report miscarriages to the government or they could 
wind up in prison.
  The other side in this debate paints a picture of women exercising 
their right to choose that is unfair and unrealistic. These are 
incredibly difficult choices. Many women exercising the right to choose 
have just been hit with the most devastating medical news that 
prospective parents can face. It is not up to State lawmakers and 
government bureaucrats to step in and interfere with this intensely 
private and personal choice, but that is exactly what is on offer with 
the laws being passed in statehouses across the land. These laws bind 
and punish women with a level of government control that did not exist 
before Roe. This is right out of nightmarish fiction. It is a 
coordinated attack on women's rights that is cruel and dangerous.
  Abortion and other reproductive decisions are healthcare, and 
healthcare choices ought to be made by women with the help of doctors 
they trust, not by the Federal Government and not by State lawmakers--
women and doctors. That is it. Full stop.
  My Democratic colleagues and I want to thank Senator Murray and 
Senator Shaheen, who have been such advocates for women's healthcare 
for many years in public service. They are here.
  We are all going to be part of this effort that I am proud to join in 
to fight at the Federal level with everything we have to stand up for 
women's right to make intensely personal choices, and we are going to 
be joining those women across the land who are standing up and fighting 
with everything they have.
  The government should not have control of women's bodies--end of 
story.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am here to join my colleagues. I was 
going to say I am pleased, but I am not pleased. I am disappointed that 
we are here on the floor today talking about something that should be 
an issue that is decided by women with their families and their 
physicians. Yet we are here to sound the alarm about the relentless 
assault State legislatures and

[[Page S2990]]

this administration have leveled against constitutionally protected 
reproductive rights and a woman's right to choose the healthcare she 
needs.
  I certainly applaud Senator Murray, who has done such a great job of 
leading the response to this assault, and my colleague from Oregon, 
Senator Wyden, for his efforts.
  This radical effort to limit women's freedom to a full range of 
reproductive care is part of a broader strategy by some in this country 
to take healthcare away from people who need it. Americans across the 
country, both women and men, are calling out these threats and fighting 
them head-on. Today, in hundreds of capitals across this country, in 
courthouses, at hundreds of rallies, a powerful message is being sent 
that we are not going back. As Members of Congress here in Washington, 
we need to join them and defend women's reproductive rights.
  In just the past 2 weeks, Governors in Alabama and Georgia signed 
extreme and dangerous abortion restrictions into law. Yesterday, the 
Missouri Legislature passed another bill to place draconian 
restrictions on a woman's access to abortion. These actions are part of 
a concerted effort around the country to overturn Roe v. Wade and to 
deny women access to reproductive care.
  What is so ironic about this is that this is coming at a time when 
last year this country saw fewer unintended pregnancies than at any 
time in our history because giving women access to family planning, to 
the range of reproductive healthcare that women need, means that there 
are fewer unintended pregnancies. What laws like this will mean is that 
there will be more abortions, more unintended pregnancies, more 
maternal health deaths. That is not the direction in which we should be 
going.
  All of these State actions are concerning, especially the new Alabama 
law, which would outlaw abortion in virtually all instances with no 
exception for cases of rape or incest. The Alabama law also establishes 
prison sentences for providers who perform abortions in violation of 
the abortion ban. So think about that for a second. If a doctor 
performs an abortion for a rape victim, the Alabama law could put that 
doctor in prison for as long as or even longer than the rapist. That 
makes no sense. The Alabama abortion ban, and so many other State laws 
like it, will not only impede on a woman's freedom to make her own 
reproductive choices, but it will also push women into the shadows and 
increase the likelihood of unsafe abortions. We know that. We have data 
that shows that--not just in the United States but around the world.
  Today, one in three women live in States where abortion would be 
outlawed if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
  The Alabama law and other State abortion bans are designed as a 
direct challenge to the protections provided by Roe in the hopes of 
forcing action from the Supreme Court and sowing chaos in those States 
where abortion would be outlawed. So rather than thinking about women 
and how they will be affected by this law, it is strictly designed to 
try to challenge the current Roe v. Wade law.
  Unfortunately, even in the light of the extreme nature of these 
recent abortion bans, we have an administration that is compounding the 
issue through its own actions to interfere with access to reproductive 
health services. Now, whether it is creating new administrative 
obstacles to insurance coverage of abortion, preventing title X family 
planning clinics from informing their patients about reproductive care 
choices, or any of the many other recent Federal actions, the Trump 
administration's clear goal is to chip away at access to abortion.
  Now, these recent actions by States and the administration pose grave 
threats to the freedoms and reproductive health protections that are 
relied on by women all across this country.
  At this critical time, we need to say loud and clear that we are 
ready to fight these extreme actions with everything we have.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Washington.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to join my 
colleagues who have been speaking this morning about the access to 
healthcare for women in America. Today, as women take action across the 
Nation to bring focus to this issue, I would like to join my 
colleagues, particularly the senior Senator from Washington, and I 
thank her for her leadership on this important issue. She knows better 
than most how many times the Senate and the Congress in the last decade 
have fought over access to healthcare for women. It seems like every 
budget debate, every fiscal cliff, every budget negotiation, and every 
issue had to have a debate about whether we were going to defund 
Planned Parenthood. So it is not a surprise that we are out here today 
as States across the Nation try to roll back access to healthcare. I 
guarantee you, I believe and my State believes that access to 
healthcare should be and is protected under the Constitution as a right 
to privacy. We believe that and codified Roe v. Wade into statute by a 
vote of the people in the 1990s. So any time anybody is going to take 
on access to healthcare for women and erode what is a basic right in 
our State and, I believe, a basic right protected in our Constitution, 
we are going to raise our voices. You are going to hear from us. So it 
is amazing to me that every budget battle and every debate here in the 
Senate comes down to rolling back access to women's healthcare.
  Now we see Supreme Court Justices who may or may not uphold those 
basic rights as were established in Connecticut v. Griswold, as did a 
Supreme Court Justice, who just happened to hail from the State of 
Washington, who understood that the privacy rights protected in the 
Constitution are in the penumbra of rights. So, yes, I believe that our 
Supreme Court Justices should also continue that well-established 
practice of observing those privacy rights. So it is hard to say what 
all of these State actions will lead to, whether they will make it to 
the Supreme Court and what this Supreme Court will have to say about 
it. But I can tell you that we here in the Senate--women who understand 
the access to healthcare--are so emphatic that we not erode these 
rights.
  I had the very unfortunate situation of having to speak at a funeral 
this weekend for a 28-year-old former staff member who died of cancer. 
I know how much fight she had in her, but it was afterward where one of 
her relatives said to me: Senator, you cannot leave this unaddressed.
  Young women at college campuses are not getting the breast exams to 
do early detection that they should. They should be out there. We 
should do more to evangelize that young women need to pay attention to 
their healthcare. Yet we are here across the Nation having this debate, 
and I guarantee you that the access to healthcare to do those early 
detections in a lot of communities comes with the access that 
organizations like Planned Parenthood and others deliver. So while they 
are not what is immediately under attack by these States, I guarantee 
you that it is all a part of a larger debate that needs to stop.
  Healthcare should be the right of women to be discussed with their 
doctors and continue to be protected under our Constitution.
  I thank the President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Washington 
for that personal story, and I am sorry for her loss of a former staff 
member. I think that story is a good place to start because this isn't 
just about an isolated bill passing in one State. This is actually part 
of a greater effort.
  As you look at what this administration has been trying to do since 
day one, defunding Planned Parenthood--OK, well, that is where one out 
of five women in their lifetime will go to seek healthcare for things 
like cancer screenings and for things like contraception. You look at 
the fact that over the span of the last administration, we actually 
reduced abortions to the lowest level in recorded history. That is a

[[Page S2991]]

good thing. People who are personally opposed to abortion or people who 
are pro-choice can agree that that is a good thing. Why did that 
happen? Because contraception was available. Why did that happen? 
Because healthcare was available that allowed, with more ease, women to 
access contraception. So now what do we have? We have three things 
going on. These restrictive laws that literally put doctors in prison 
for 99 years is what I will talk about today. We have an effort to 
defund Planned Parenthood and to reduce access to contraception as a 
result. Then we have an effort--a major effort--to repeal the entire 
Affordable Care Act, which would allow women to be kicked off of their 
healthcare insurance if they have a preexisting condition. Before that 
act came into law, in eight States, being a victim of domestic abuse 
was considered a preexisting condition. So do not see these laws that 
were just passed in these States and are being considered in these 
States as isolated. Look at it as a complete package, and it is not a 
package that the women of this country want to get in the mail.
  I have always believed that a woman's most personal and difficult 
medical decisions should be made with her doctor and her family and 
that those decisions should not be undermined or politicized by 
Government officials. But that is exactly what we are seeing today. In 
the last few months, an alarming number of States have passed laws to 
limit a woman's ability to seek reproductive healthcare services. 
Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, and Georgia have all recently passed 
measures that basically amount to a ban on abortion. Just last week, 
Alabama passed a bill that effectively and in writing banned abortion 
completely. The bill which passed the Alabama State Senate--by the way, 
without a vote of a single woman senator--would allow a doctor who 
performed an abortion to be sent to jail for 99 years. The Alabama 
law's only exception is if a woman's life is at risk. It does not even 
include an exception for incidents of rape or incest. So what does this 
mean? Well, if your kid is in college and gets brutally raped, it means 
that she would not have a choice about whether or not she would carry a 
baby. That is what that law says in Alabama. And if a doctor 
intervened, if a doctor wanted to help in that State, he would be sent 
to prison for 99 years--or up to 99 years. This is not something I am 
making up or exaggerating; this is what this bill that passed one of 
the States and is similar to bills in other States actually says.

  What we are seeing, of course, is wrong and unconstitutional. These 
bills directly infringe on a woman's right to make her own medical 
decisions and the precedent that the Supreme Court set in Roe v. Wade, 
which has been affirmed many times over the last 46 years.
  You wonder where the public is on this? Seventy-three percent of 
Americans do not believe that Roe v. Wade should be reversed. In my 
State, I have people who are pro-choice, and I have people who are pro-
life. I have people who personally believe they do not want to have an 
abortion; however, they don't think that their views should dictate 
what happens to their neighbors. That is the problem. That is the nub 
of the problem with what is going on in these States.
  The precedent in Roe is clear, but these lawmakers have decided that 
they want to take away a woman's basic right to make a personal 
healthcare decision. In fact, they are passing these bills with the 
hope that it goes to the Supreme Court where this administration has 
placed judges on that Court where there is a lot of hope, with the 
people who are passing these restrictive laws, that they are going to 
overturn Roe v. Wade.
  After signing the new abortion ban into law, the Governor of Alabama 
released a statement in which he said the sponsors of this bill believe 
it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this 
important matter, and they believe this act may bring about ``the best 
opportunity for this to occur.''
  So don't tell me this is just one legislature deciding they are going 
to do something other people in this Chamber on the other side of the 
aisle don't agree with. No. No. No. This has been an effort that has 
been going on for years. This is an effort that is going on during an 
administration with a President that, in a townhall meeting in March of 
2016, said that he thought women should be punished for making that 
decision. A few hours later, his campaign tries to dial it back with 
the statement: No, he meant that doctors should be punished.
  This is not just an isolated incident, which is why so many of my 
colleagues have taken to the floor today. We can have individual 
disagreements, and we can have our own personal beliefs, but as elected 
officials, we must follow the Constitution of the United States. 
Overturning Roe isn't just unconstitutional. As I said, it is against 
the wishes of the vast majority of the people in this country.
  In the last few years, as I have noted, we have seen an assault on 
women's access to care. We have seen it with the attempt to defund 
Planned Parenthood, even though, during the Obama administration, we 
saw a historic decrease in abortions. According to a CDC study 
conducted between 2006 and 2015, abortion rates fell to historic lows 
near the end of the Obama administration.
  What should we be doing? Well, we should be providing more access to 
healthcare services, comprehensive health education, and contraception, 
not less. We should ensure that women are equipped with the knowledge 
and resources they need to make informed healthcare decisions.
  In the Senate, I have fought back against efforts to undermine the 
ability of a woman to make choices about her own health. I have 
cosponsored the Women's Health Protection Act, important legislation 
led by Senator Blumenthal, to prohibit laws intended to restrict 
women's access to reproductive health services, and I look forward to 
cosponsoring this bill again when it is reintroduced.
  I thank Senator Murray for her leadership over her many, many years 
in this area. It is our responsibility to treat women in every State in 
this Union with respect and dignity, instead of using them as political 
pawns.
  I join my colleagues in condemning these recent efforts to restrict 
women's access to healthcare services, and I will continue working to 
protect the health and lives of women across the country.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.