[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 164 (Wednesday, September 22, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H4868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Garcia) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Madam Speaker, women's freedom to choose their 
reproductive care is under attack by politicians who want to control 
their decisions.
  A woman's freedom to make a decision on this very private, personal 
matter should be respected and should be left to her alone together 
with her family and her doctor and guided by her faith.
  Politicians and government should have no control. Yet 3 weeks ago, 
my home State of Texas passed one of the strictest abortion bills in 
the country which on its face is unconstitutional.
  Politicians in Texas are trying to control women's freedom to choose 
and the progress that we have made in the last 50 years. It also allows 
anyone--anyone--in the country to file a lawsuit against a provider, 
family, friend, clergy, Uber driver, Lyft driver, and anyone who 
assists a woman seeking an abortion. If successful, the plaintiffs get 
$10,000.
  In fact, just last week two individuals, not even from Texas, filed 
lawsuits against a doctor from San Antonio who publicly acknowledged 
that he had performed an abortion outside the legal limits of this 
Texas law. One of the plaintiffs even admitted that his reason for 
filing this suit was the $10,000 bounty. He needed the money.
  This is outrageous and must be stopped. Texas already has some of the 
most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
  Before this law entered into effect, my home State already required 
women to get mandatory sonograms, and we also have a 24-hour waiting 
period. Now this law makes existing restrictions even worse.
  Texas has almost 7 million women aged 15 to 49 out of a total of 75 
million in this age group in the entire country. So we make up now one 
in ten of the U.S. women of reproductive age. All these women all over 
Texas now have no choices. Now, effectively, Roe v. Wade is 
meaningless.
  Madam Speaker, women's freedom to choose what to do with their bodies 
is hanging by a thread, and Congress can't sit idle.
  Last week, I visited Planned Parenthood's headquarters in my district 
and heard horrific stories about how this draconian law is affecting 
women in my region.
  On September 1, the day that Texas law took effect, one Texas woman 
learned she was about 5 weeks pregnant--and still within the new legal 
limits in the Texas law to obtain an abortion in Texas. But at the same 
visit she also learned that she had COVID-19. By the time she would 
finish her quarantine period it would be too late to get an abortion in 
Texas and she would then have to go out of State for care.
  On September 2, Planned Parenthood providers saw a patient for an 
ultrasound that showed she was under 6 weeks and still within the new 
legal limits of the Texas law. When she came back the next day after 
the State mandated 24-hour waiting period, the second sonogram showed 
she had passed the new legal limit. Overnight she lost access to an 
abortion in Texas.
  Here is another story. A few days after the Texas law took effect, a 
woman walked into the Planned Parenthood's health center after trying 
to self-manage an abortion. Having no money or resources, she had 
turned to the internet where she found some abortion tea. She took it, 
and it didn't work. The ultrasound showed she was past the new legal 
limit, and doctors in Texas couldn't help her. She too was now forced 
to seek care out of State or to continue with her pregnancy.
  Then, Madam Speaker, I am sure you heard about tropical storm 
Nicholas. The storm made landfall during some patients' State mandated 
24-hour waiting period. They were hunkered down. They couldn't get to 
the clinic, and the clinic was closed. They lost their right to an 
abortion during that time period.
  Another case I heard of was from a 44-year-old patient, already a 
parent, who didn't think she could have any more children but learned 
that she was pregnant at 7 weeks, just past the legal limits of the new 
Texas law. This patient was never planning to stay with her current 
partner and now, due to this pregnancy, feels pressured to remain in 
that relationship.
  Madam Speaker, these cases are heartbreaking, and I am sure we will 
hear more and worse because women's lives are at risk. And although I 
am encouraged to know the Justice Department is acting on this, 
Congress needs to act, and this is why we must pass H.R. 3755.

                          ____________________