[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2385-S2386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                ABORTION

  Mr. SCHUMER. So, Mr. President, tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will vote 
to protect one of the most fundamental freedoms that women have in this 
country: the freedom to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Few 
decisions are more personal and few decisions are more private than 
decisions women make regarding their own pregnancies. Few should be 
more out of bounds to elected politicians and to the whims of 
government. But, sadly, few rights are in as much peril right now as 
the fundamental right to choose.
  If this abominable decision becomes law, women will lose their 
freedom in so many ways--a giant step backward in the United States, 
where expanding freedom has always been our goal and our aspiration.
  Tomorrow's vote will be one of the most important votes we take in 
this Chamber in decades because, for the first time in 50 years, a 
conservative majority--an extreme conservative majority--on the Supreme 
Court is on the brink of declaring that women do not have a right to an 
abortion, they do not have the right to control their own bodies, and 
they do not have the right to healthcare in the ways that they believe 
they need.
  If that happens, tens of millions of women will see their freedoms 
contract in the blink of an eye. Our children will grow up in a world 
where they have fewer rights than their parents and grandparents had. 
America will take a painful and damaging step backward.
  The American people will be watching the Senate closely tomorrow, and 
they will not forget how their elected Senators voted. I ask my 
colleagues to think carefully about their vote, to grapple with the 
impact of a world without Roe because all of us will have to answer for 
this vote for the rest of our time in public office.
  Now, it is worth saying over and over again: Last week's draft 
decision didn't come out of nowhere; it didn't materialize in a vacuum. 
On the contrary, it is precisely the outcome that extreme Republicans 
have been working toward for years. Leader McConnell himself has 
admitted that this was their plan

[[Page S2386]]

all along. They have worked for years to confirm radical judges, 
plucked right out of the Federalist Society playbook, with the express 
goal to ``pick away at Roe v. Wade.'' That is their quote.
  The radicals on the hard right have passed wave after wave of 
draconian restrictions at the State level, making abortion nearly 
impossible to access. One of those laws is about to be upheld by the 
Supreme Court of the United States.
  These radicals have taken what were once outlandish ideas, like 
prison time for women and doctors and abortion bans without exception 
for rape and incest, and brought them to the forefront. Ideas that were 
radical and out of hand they are now talking about freely. Should Roe 
ultimately be overturned, many of us fear it would be just the start.
  Over the weekend, Leader McConnell acknowledged where this is 
ultimately going. Without Roe, proposals for a nationwide ban on 
abortions are now possible if Republicans retake the Senate. That is 
what Leader McConnell said this weekend. That is right--a national ban 
on abortion. Not very long ago, the idea seemed to belong on the 
extreme of the extremes. Now the Republican leader himself acknowledges 
this is on the table--just a glaring indication of how radicalized the 
Republican Party has become in recent decades as the MAGA wing has all 
but completed its cancerous takeover.
  All the times that Republicans disguised their hostility to Roe as a 
matter of ``States' rights'' have been exposed for what they are: 
hypocrisy, a smokescreen hiding the real objective. It is one of the 
oldest, most sinister arguments Republicans have used for decades. For 
MAGA Republicans, this has never been about States' rights; it has 
always been about getting rid of abortion altogether.
  The hypocrisies run deeper still. It is worth noting that the very 
same party that spent years opposing healthcare by saying that ``the 
American people want healthcare decisions left up to families and 
doctors''--that is what they said as they opposed ACA year after year. 
They said, again, the American people want healthcare decisions left up 
to their families and doctors when it came to ACA. They are now the 
very same radicals who are telling Americans: No, it is not up to your 
family and your doctor; it is your body, our choice--the radical 
right's choice, the choice of five men on the Supreme Court who are 
extreme.
  Now, many on the other side can't even bring themselves to own the 
horrors they have unleashed. They are trying to convince people they 
are not extreme, but the truth is that the MAGA wing of the Republican 
Party is running the show, and their actions prove how extreme they 
are.
  Senate Republicans have spent a full week trying to change the 
subject to anything but Roe because they know how toxic this issue has 
become for them. The Republican leader tried to say, in vain, that the 
real story of the draft decision was not the end of Roe but the source 
of the leaked draft? Tell that to 100 million Americans who will lose 
their most personal of rights. I am sure they don't care as much about 
the leaked draft as about how they can control their own bodies.
  The chair of the Republican campaign arm, Senator Scott, released 
laughable talking points saying Republicans, of course, don't want to 
imprison doctors, even though his allies, his fellow MAGA Republicans, 
are pushing for exactly that at the State level. It would all be 
farcical if it wasn't so bone-chilling and the consequences were not so 
serious.
  Senate Republicans can try to run from their role in securing Roe's 
extinction, but sooner or later, the truth wins out. Without the 
actions they have taken for years, reproductive rights wouldn't be 
staring straight into a doomsday scenario.
  So, tomorrow, the vote to protect abortion rights will shine like a 
floodlight on every Member of this Chamber. Republicans who pretended 
disingenuously as if this moment couldn't possibly happen will have to 
answer to the women of America whose rights are about to be turned back 
by decades.
  Tomorrow, there will be no more hiding; there will be no more 
distracting, no more obfuscating where every Member in this Chamber 
stands. Senate Republicans will face a choice: Either vote to protect 
the rights of women to exercise freedom over their own bodies or stand 
with the Supreme Court as 50 years of women's rights are reduced to 
rubble before our very eyes. The vote tomorrow will tell.

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