[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2393-S2394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Women's Health Protection Act

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, in the aftermath of last week's leak of 
the draft Supreme Court opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health 
Organization, we are facing one of the lowest moments in history for 
our Nation's highest Court.
  An illegitimate, far-right majority on the Court is poised to 
overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and take away a 
fundamental constitutional right that has been the law of the land for 
almost 50 years--the right to a legal, safe abortion. Every American 
deserves the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies.
  While the leaked opinion may only be a draft, we cannot ignore the 
profound threat it poses. That is because the opinion is the outrageous 
culmination of a rightwing campaign to take over the Court and take 
America back to the days when far too many faced not only a loss of 
liberty but a loss of life when seeking abortion care.
  It validates the theft of two Supreme Court seats by President Trump, 
then-Leader McConnell, and Senate Republicans.
  It confirms that conservative Justices lied to the Congress and the 
American people about their commitment to the Court's precedent and the 
rule of law.
  Overturning Roe v. Wade will undermine the health, safety, and 
freedom of millions of Americans, and it will create horrific pain and 
hardship for people all across the Nation, especially those without the 
means or resources to travel to States where abortion will remain safe 
and legal.
  Already, for pregnant Americans in red States across the country, 
access to abortion is functionally denied because of a lack of funds, 
geography, immigration status, and other barriers. This war on people 
of color and the poor is already being waged, and we cannot let the 
Supreme Court provide deadlier weapons.
  If the extremist rightwing of the Court is willing to abandon 
something as fundamental as the right to privacy and the right for 
Americans to make decisions about their own bodies, then we are on a 
slippery slope to the undoing of other fundamental rights the Court has 
recognized as being grounded in the right to privacy, including the 
right to use contraception or the right to marry whomever you love.
  But this was the goal of the Republicans and the rightwing all along: 
steal the Supreme Court seats, steal an election, and steal the rights 
of Americans.
  This is the direct consequence of an anti-majoritarian and anti-
democratic national electoral system that allowed two Presidents, who 
both lost the popular vote, to nominate more than half of the current 
Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and allowed them to be confirmed by 
Senators representing a minority of the Nation's population.
  This is the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic manifestation of a 
radical rightwing, extremist vision of America that is out of step with 
the vast majority of Americans. In fact, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans 
say Roe v. Wade should be upheld.
  This egregious and overtly political act cannot be allowed to go 
unanswered. Faith in our judicial system is in jeopardy, so we are left 
with no other choice. We have to immediately pass Federal legislation 
that protects millions of Americans' right to choose, that lifts 
dangerous and discriminatory bans on abortion, and that removes 
unnecessary limits on reproductive freedom.
  The Women's Health Protection Act will do all of that by codifying 
Roe so as to affirm it as the law of the land. The Women's Health 
Protection Act enshrines in Federal law a healthcare provider's right 
to provide abortion services and a patient's right to receive them.
  Among its provisions, the bill would prohibit previability bans 
designed to undercut the right to an abortion, like the 15-week ban 
imposed by the Mississippi law at issue in Dobbs or specious 
``heartbeat'' bans like the one imposed by Texas's SB 8.
  The Women's Health Protection Act would prohibit bans that do not 
make exceptions for the patient's health or life. I am appalled that 
any Member of Congress could consider themselves in support of women 
but then support a ban that explicitly devalues life.
  This bill would also ban so-called TRAP laws--the targeted regulation 
of abortion providers--that impose onerous and unwarranted requirements 
on facilities and providers who do nothing to promote health but, 
rather, make it nearly impossible for healthcare providers to keep 
their doors open.
  The bill would also prohibit requirements that providers share 
medically inaccurate information and impose medically unnecessary and 
manipulative tests and procedures like mandatory ultrasounds.
  It would prohibit limitations that prevent providers from caring for 
patients by telemedicine--a service that we have all learned to have 
been invaluable over the course of the pandemic and one that is all the 
more necessary for abortion care given the already draconian laws in 
some red States across the country.
  It would bar other unjustified, onerous, and discriminatory practices 
intended to place obstacles in the path of those seeking abortion 
services.
  In short, the Women's Health Protection Act will safeguard the rights 
established by 50 years of Supreme Court precedent and would protect 
abortion access even if Roe is overturned.
  This bill is all that is standing between the America we have known 
for decades and one that plunges millions of people back in time--into 
despair, pain, poverty, and forced parenthood.
  If we fail to act, we know Republicans will. If the Supreme Court 
overturns Roe v. Wade, 28 States are poised to ban abortion outright. 
Of those, 13 States already have trigger bans in place--activating laws 
that would ban abortion automatically when Roe is overturned.

[[Page S2394]]

  These bans and attacks fall hardest on those most marginalized, 
including people of color, LGBTQ people, people with low incomes, and 
those in rural communities. Many of these States would criminalize 
abortion. Those seeking abortions and those performing them would face 
the prospect of prison.
  It is not just at the State level. The Republican leader in the 
Senate has said the quiet part out loud: If Republicans gain control of 
the Senate, they could consider Federal legislation that bans abortion 
as passing on the floor of this Senate.
  We can't sit idly by and wait for the worst to happen. It is already 
at our doorstep. We must make the right to safe and secure reproductive 
health and freedom the law of the land. We must do it now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.