[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 164 (Tuesday, September 22, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5745-S5747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3072

  Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, in a few moments, I will ask 
unanimous consent for the Senate to take up and pass legislation I have 
introduced to protect women from harm and to protect their health.
  This is such an important issue to me as a Senator, as a woman, and 
as a mother. I am pleased several of my Senate colleagues have joined 
me on the floor to discuss this important issue, and I look forward to 
hearing their remarks as well.
  Twenty years ago this month, the Food and Drug Administration 
approved, for the very first time, the abortion pill known as 
mifepristone. It did so under the immense pressure from the Clinton 
administration and its pro-abortion allies. However, when the FDA 
approved this drug, it recognized the serious risk of complications and 
life-threatening side effects that can be caused by this drug. Because 
of the risk of harm, and even death, the FDA put in place certain rules 
to protect the health of women. These rules are known as risk, 
evaluation, and mitigation strategies--or REMS for short--because they 
work to mitigate the risks posed by this drug to women.
  These commonsense rules require a woman to see a doctor to get the 
drug, to be fully informed of the potential side effects and how she 
can seek followup treatment for those life-threatening side effects, 
and to offer her informed consent before being prescribed the drug.
  These simple, commonsense rules have been in place to protect the 
health of women for over 20 years. Recognizing their importance, I 
introduced the SAVE Moms and Babies Act last year to codify these rules 
into law to make sure they remain in place to protect women from these 
serious side effects. However, pro-abortion forces oppose even these 
basic protections for women's health and have been working to undermine 
them, putting women at serious risk.

  This summer, a judge in Maryland issued a nationwide injunction 
canceling these REMS rules for the entire country. We knew this was 
coming. Back in April, I led 150 Members of Congress, including 38 
Members of this

[[Page S5746]]

body, in warning the FDA about this issue, and now pro-abortion 
advocates have found one activist judge to rule in their favor, putting 
women's health at risk in the middle of a pandemic.
  Even with the REMS rules in place to protect women's health, a 
substantial number of women end up needing lifesaving surgery or blood 
transfusions following chemical abortion. Sadly, some women have even 
died from these dangerous drugs.
  Make no mistake, no protections mean more adverse events for women. 
These protections ensure that a doctor could examine the woman to see 
if she has an ectopic pregnancy or is RH negative. These conditions can 
seriously increase the risk of harm to a woman taking this drug.
  No REMS protections means at-home abortion without medical oversight, 
putting women at risk of bleeding out and dying alone without a doctor 
to help her. No REMS protections mean that every State health and 
safety law that protects women from harm will be at risk. No REMS 
protections mean mail-order abortion without physicians providing the 
screenings recommended by the doctors and scientists at the FDA.
  That is why it is more important than ever to pass my bill, the SAVE 
Moms and Babies Act, to codify into law the important FDA REMS rules 
that protect women from the dangers inherent in mail-order, do-it-
yourself chemical abortions.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, an abortion is always tragic, as it involves 
the taking of an innocent human life, one that has yet to draw its 
first breath or commit its first sin. In the case of a chemical 
abortion, it sometimes takes two lives: that of the baby and that of 
the mother.
  Advocates for this procedure will say that it is simple, it is easy, 
it is convenient, and it is safe. They claim that it is a good and 
valuable form of ``healthcare'' for women, but nothing could be further 
from the truth. The grim and gruesome reality is that this barbaric 
practice wreaks havoc on women's bodies and destroys the tiny bodies 
growing within them.
  So just how does this procedure work? The details are not pleasant. 
First, the mother is given a pill that blocks progesterone. This, of 
course, is a hormone that is necessary for pregnancy, and it breaks 
down the lining of her uterus. Without progesterone, you see, the baby, 
whose heart is already beating, is starved to death and dies in her 
mother's womb.
  Then, 24 to 48 hours later, the mother is given a second pill, one 
that empties her uterus by causing severe contractions and bleeding, 
mimicking early miscarriage. It can last anywhere from a few hours to a 
few weeks.
  Planned Parenthood will try to gloss over the truth here, as 
elsewhere, claiming that a hot shower and some ibuprofen are enough for 
a quick recovery to get the mother back on her feet, but, on average, 
the miscarriage lasts between 9 and 16 days and can last for as long as 
30 days. Thirty days--that is a long time.
  Most of the time these abortions are done at home. The mother is left 
to suffer alone, without care or medical attention, without supervision 
from a doctor or a nurse, and often without any followup whatsoever 
until 7 to 14 days later, if ever, keeping in mind that many of them 
don't get any followup care at all.
  The result? Well, women have suffered tragic, gruesome, and horrific 
experiences using the abortion pill. It has caused nearly 4,200 adverse 
medical events, including more than 1,000 hospitalizations and nearly 
600 instances of blood loss requiring transfusions.
  Some women have even died. The FDA has reported 24 maternal deaths 
from the abortion pill just since its approval in 2000, and those are 
just the officially reported ones that we know of that have happened 
with the regulations we currently have in place. Based on the 
assumption that those regulations are in place, that is still a really 
high rate at which they die.
  Some women need corrective surgery after taking the abortion pill and 
others require lifesaving procedures. And, somehow, we call this 
healthcare. This is not like popping a Tylenol. This two-step abortion 
cocktail poses severe risks to women, not even to mention their unborn 
babies.
  In fact, abortion pills are one of only a few medications that 
require what is known as a risk evaluation and management strategy, a 
drug safety program that the FDA requires for medications with serious 
risks. Yet some are pushing to further expand access to these drugs and 
even further loosen the regulations around them.
  Some activists are even pushing for access to the abortion pill by 
mail, meaning that the patient would never even have to be seen in 
person by any medical professional at all--not a medical clinic, not a 
doctor, not a nurse--nothing in person.
  The standards of care surrounding this practice are already reckless, 
they are already harmful, and they are already causing misery, injury, 
suffering, and death. In fact, they are unacceptable standards of care 
for women and for babies. The last thing we should be doing is making 
them even worse, making them even more vulnerable than they already 
are.
  So setting aside for a minute how you feel about other issues related 
to unborn human life in this area, let's just talk about this issue for 
a moment. Let's just talk about whether this issue is really one that 
we want to expand, where we increase the amount of misery, the amount 
of suffering, and the amount of carnage that would occur as a result of 
more people gaining access to this deeply flawed, very dangerous form 
of so-called healthcare.
  That is why we ought to support the bill put forward by my friend and 
colleague Senator Hyde-Smith. The SAVE Moms and Babies Act would 
prohibit the FDA from approving new abortion drugs, from loosening any 
regulations that exist on already approved abortion drugs, and from 
dispensing abortion drugs remotely or through the mail.
  The purpose of healthcare is to heal, to preserve, and to protect 
human life. A chemical abortion happens in the first trimester of life, 
up to about the tenth week of pregnancy, when an unborn baby already 
has a beating heart, when an unborn baby already has a growing brain, 
and when the growing baby already has 10 fingers and 10 toes.
  She deserves a shot at life, at the beginning of life, at the front 
door, and she deserves to not have it taken away and, literally, 
flushed down the drain. Mothers deserve the utmost care, protection, 
and support as they nurture the human life inside of them, not medical 
harm and not medical neglect.
  Our healthcare system should protect and care for them both, and our 
laws should uphold the immeasurable dignity and worth of both. This 
bill is a step in the right direction, and I implore all of my 
colleagues to support this legislation
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hyde-Smith). The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I thank the Presiding Officer, Senator 
Hyde-Smith, and Senator Lee for organizing this colloquy and 
participating in it in support of the Support and Value Expectant Moms 
and Babies Act. I love that title: Support and Value Expectant Moms. 
Isn't that great? We should.
  I am a doctor--not an obstetrician, but, nonetheless, I have 
delivered babies. As a doctor, my mission was to save lives--I don't 
practice anymore; I use the past tense--and improve health outcomes for 
all patients.
  We are here talking about chemical abortions. Chemical abortions 
don't do any of that. The health risks can be severe, obviously, for 
the unborn child but also, potentially, for the mom, and, particularly, 
when the mother has this without supervision by a healthcare provider.
  The total absence of medical support is the total absence of care, 
and using potentially dangerous chemicals without medical support can 
lead to the absence of health. If Americans care about a woman's 
health, they should be concerned when such procedures are allowed.
  Yet chemical abortions are on the rise. I am told that in 2017 they 
represented nearly 40 percent of all abortions. Due to a recent court 
case, women can begin to receive these through the mail, prescribed 
without even receiving a physical exam.
  Now, the mom who selects that may not know the potential 
consequences, but, as a physician, I do. The potential

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complications include, for example, if the mother has what is called an 
ectopic pregnancy, where the unborn child and the placenta are not in 
the womb but are outside of the womb. If that occurs and these pills 
are taken--the pill known as Mifeprex, RU486--it can cause that 
pregnancy to rupture, and instead of the bleeding coming out as the 
child would, through the vagina, it means that internal bleeding 
occurs, which can result in the mother's death.
  Chemical abortions have four times the complications that surgical 
abortions do in the first trimester, and as many as 6 percent of women 
taking these abortion drugs require surgery to complete the abortion--
potentially painful and life-threatening and, of course, horrific for 
the unborn child.
  The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has stated 
that ``compared with surgical abortion, medical abortion takes longer 
to complete, requires more active patient participation, and is 
associated with higher reported rates of bleeding and cramping.''
  The bill we are discussing today, the SAVE Moms and Babies Act, or 
the Support and Value Expectant Moms and Babies Act, takes substantive 
steps to protect the health of women and the unborn child. The bill 
prevents approval of new abortion drugs by the FDA, keeps the risk 
evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS, protocol, and curtails 
abortion pills from being dispensed by mail or through telemedicine.
  I introduced the Teleabortion Prevention Act of 2020 in February, 
which requires a doctor to physically examine a pregnant mom before 
prescribing any abortion-related drugs and requires a followup 
appointment. We actually want women to receive healthcare, by 
healthcare providers who care about their health.
  If Senators in this body really care about women's health, they 
should join with us to stop these do-it-yourself abortions. Preventing 
abortion protects unborn babies, but preventing chemical abortions 
protects women.
  Let's work together to protect women by passing the SAVE Moms and 
Babies Act to forever end dangerous chemical abortions.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3072 and the 
Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I ask unanimous consent 
that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the 
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. The FDA 
approved mifepristone nearly 20 years ago, and leading medical 
organizations have made clear that restrictions on it like those that 
are in this bill are not based on evidence or patients' best interests. 
This bill is not about science or healthcare or what is best for women 
across the Nation. It is about ideology and Republicans wanting to do 
every single thing they can to chip away at the right to a safe, legal 
abortion.
  Not on my watch. This is far from the only Republican effort to 
ignore the science and the medical professionals and overrule the 
personal decisions of patients across the country.
  At this very moment, they are gearing up to jam through President 
Trump's Supreme Court nominee and strike down Roe v. Wade. But as sure 
as I am standing here today to oppose this effort to restrict women's 
reproductive rights, you can bet I will be standing with women and men 
across the country to oppose that one too.
  I will offer legislation in a moment that actually does work to 
protect and help women and families in a moment, but for now, on this 
request, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Washington.