[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 4, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1499-H1500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CALL FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend and sister in 
service, Representative Tlaib, for cohosting this special session with 
me this evening to discuss the critical issue of reproductive justice 
in our country.
  As chair of the Abortion Rights and Access Task Force in this first-
ever pro-choice majority Congress, I am proud to join my colleagues 
tonight as we stand up and push back against these unprecedented, 
coordinated attacks on our collective reproductive rights and 
liberties.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, the stakes could not be any higher. Since 2011, 
anti-choice politicians have pushed a wave of nearly 450 restrictive 
laws through State legislatures and now all the way to the U.S. Supreme 
Court. Over the last year alone, they have enacted 25 bans across 
dozens of States, pushing comprehensive reproductive healthcare, 
including abortion care, further and further out of reach.
  They are working overtime to peddle harmful misconceptions and to 
legislate abortion out of existence.
  As a result, reproductive health facilities have been forced to shut 
their doors, forcing individuals to travel across State lines, shoulder 
additional financial burdens, and jump through unnecessary and 
humiliating hoops just to access comprehensive care.

[[Page H1500]]

  Just this morning, I, along with several of my House colleagues, 
marched to the Supreme Court to stand in solidarity with the justice 
warriors who are on the front lines, fighting for our collective 
humanity because, today, the Supreme Court begins deliberations on the 
constitutionality of a Louisiana State law that, if upheld by the 
Court, would literally shut down every abortion clinic across the State 
except for one.
  To put this further into perspective, Mr. Speaker, this could leave 
just one doctor to provide abortion care for nearly 1 million 
individuals of reproductive age across the entire State.
  If Louisiana's clinic shutdown law takes effect, it will not only 
decimate abortion access in Louisiana, but it will further embolden 
State legislatures around the country to do the same.
  Additionally, this law is literally identical to the Texas law struck 
down by the Court just 3 years ago in the Whole Woman's Health case.
  Since the Texas case, the facts certainly haven't changed. The 
precedent certainly hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is 
the makeup of the Supreme Court, a court that is now filled with judges 
who want to strip us of our bodily autonomy.
  Laws that restrict reproductive freedom undermine the very nature of 
equality and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable among us.
  Every person, every individual, regardless of income, sexual 
orientation, or gender identity, deserves equitable access to 
comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including queer, trans, and 
nonbinary individuals. As I often say, people don't live in checked 
boxes; we live in nuance and intersectionality.
  Abortion is healthcare. Reproductive justice is economic justice. 
Reproductive justice is racial justice.
  Mr. Speaker, the stakes are high. Our fundamental human rights and 
liberties are not and should not be up for debate.

                              {time}  1730

  I am proud to stand here on the floor today to remind the courts that 
Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land and that the days of the Hyde 
amendment are numbered and that we stand with our partners in 
community, the organizers and resisters who are fighting day in and day 
out to ensure that every person has the right to self-determination 
over their reproductive health.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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