[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 73 (Tuesday, May 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2253-S2254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           U.S. Supreme Court

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this is a dark and disturbing morning for 
America. Last night, a report disclosed that a conservative majority of 
the United States Supreme Court is ready to overturn Roe v. Wade and 
uproot decades of precedent affirming a woman's right to an abortion. 
If this report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the 
greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years--not just on women, 
but on all Americans.
  Under this decision, our children will have less rights than their 
parents. The Republican-appointed Justices' reported votes to overturn 
Roe v. Wade will go down as an abomination--one of the worst, most 
damaging decisions in modern history.
  Several of these conservative Justices, who are in no way accountable 
to the American people, have lied to the U.S. Senate, ripped up the 
Constitution, and defiled both precedence and the Supreme Court's 
reputation, all at the expense of tens of millions of women who could 
soon be stripped of their bodily autonomy and the constitutional rights 
they have relied on for over half a century.
  The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into 
the Party of Trump.
  Every Republican Senator who supported Senator McConnell and voted 
for Trump Justices, pretending that this day would never come, will now 
have to explain themselves to the American people.
  I will have more to say later this morning, but I want to make three 
things clear.
  First, now that the Court is poised to strike down Roe, it is my 
intention for the Senate to hold a vote on legislation to codify the 
right to an abortion in law.
  Second, a vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise. This 
is as urgent and real as it gets. We will vote to protect a woman's 
right to choose, and every American is going to see which side every 
Senator stands. Every American is going to see on which side every 
Senator stands.
  Third, to the American people, I say this: The elections this 
November will have consequences because the rights of 100 million women 
are now on the ballot.
  To help fight this Court's awful decision, I urge every American to 
make their voices heard this week and this year.
  I urge Americans to call their Members, to write their Members, to 
email their Members, to text their Members, and most of all, to cast 
their ballots.
  Make no mistake, the blame for this decision falls squarely on 
Republican Senators and the Senate Republicans

[[Page S2254]]

as a whole, who spent years pushing extremist judges and spent years 
confirming far-right Justices to the Supreme Court but who claimed, 
somehow, this day would never come.
  But this day has come, and we will fight it all the way.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.