[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 11, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2426-S2427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Women's Health Protection Act

  Madam President, now on another matter, today on the Senate floor,

[[Page S2427]]

Democrats will prove their party has been totally captured by the far-
left branch.
  My colleague, the Democratic leader, controls the schedule. He 
decides what we vote on. From inflation to the border crisis, to 
violent crime, there is no shortage of problems that deserve attention, 
but, alas, today Democrats have decided to line up behind an extreme 
and radical abortion policy. Our Democratic colleagues want to vote for 
abortion-on-demand through all 9 months, until the moment before the 
baby is born--a failed show vote that will only prove their own 
extremism.
  The Democrats' radical bill is as extreme as extreme gets. It ignores 
modern science. It is tone-deaf to public opinion. Nothing about their 
bill merely codifies the current case law on this issue. Their extreme 
proposal goes way, way beyond codifying the status quo. It would roll 
back many existing laws.
  Democrats' bill would functionally allow elective abortion through 
all 9 months, abortion until the moment of birth. We are currently one 
of only seven countries worldwide that allow elective abortion after 20 
weeks. It puts us in a group with China and North Korea. This bill 
would take us to an even more extreme and darker place.
  Only 19 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in 
most or all cases into the third trimester--only 19 percent of the 
American people. But 97 percent of House and Senate Democrats have 
cosponsored this bill that would have exactly that effect. Ninety-seven 
percent of Washington Democrats stand with the most radical 19 percent 
of the country. Almost half the Senate is about to walk the plank for a 
position that fewer than one in five Americans actually support.
  In addition to 9 months of functional abortion-on-demand, the 
Democrats' extreme bill would roll back basic health and safety 
regulations. It would roll back overwhelmingly popular safeguards such 
as waiting periods and informed consent laws. Parental notification 
would likely go out the window as well. Democrats would even rule out 
restrictions on sex-selective abortions. And their legislation takes 
direct aim at conscious protections and religious freedoms that protect 
Americans of faith who practice medicine.
  So let's sum it up. This legislation would allow abortion to viable 
babies in the ninth month, with no waiting period or informed consent, 
at the hands of a nonphysician. Taxpayers could be forced to pay for 
it, and Catholic hospitals would be forced to perform it.
  Democrats could not have written more extreme legislation. They have 
let fringe activists lead them far away from the American people. More 
than 60 percent of Americans support 24-hour waiting periods and 
requiring that doctors have admitting privileges. Even majorities of 
self-identified Democrats actually support those things. But Washington 
Democrats want to roll them back. Only 19 percent of Americans want 
abortions to be entirely or mostly legal into the third trimester, but 
97 percent of Washington Democrats back this bill.
  Democrats are melting down because the Supreme Court may--may--uphold 
a Mississippi law that would limit abortion after 15 weeks. That law 
would still be more liberal than the abortion laws in Switzerland, 
Germany, or France. Today's Democratic Party is extreme on an 
international scale.
  So, Madam President, it is chilling that anybody would write 
legislation like this in 2022. It is even more disturbing that 97 
percent of Washington Democrats have put their names on it. But the 
American people need to see what the far left has become.
  So I am glad--glad--the Senate will vote today. We will stand with 
the American people, stand with innocent life, and block the Democrats' 
extreme bill.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I have to disagree with the 
distinguished minority leader.
  The bill that we are going to vote on this afternoon is legislation 
that would ensure that the decisions about whether or not to have a 
child are made by women. It would codify Roe v. Wade to ensure that 
women make those decisions--not the minority leader, not Justice Alito, 
not some politician someplace but women. And that is who should make 
those decisions.
  I rise today to add my voice to the chorus of American women who are 
standing together, arm in arm, to loudly and clearly declare that we 
will not surrender our rights.
  Like the majority of women in New Hampshire and across this country, 
I was outraged by the leaked draft Supreme Court decision by Justice 
Alito that said that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade; that 
they would overturn almost 50 years of rights that have been guaranteed 
to women. So I rise today on behalf of the women of New Hampshire and 
the women across this country, including my daughters and 
granddaughters and the generations that will follow them.

  I rise today that we must preserve a woman's fundamental right to 
make our own decisions about our own bodies, about our futures, and 
about our health.
  Like millions of women across the country, I was shocked to see that 
opinion, written by Justice Alito, indicating that five Justices would 
vote in favor of overturning Roe. That decision, if it stands, would 
upend nearly 50 years of precedent that says a woman's healthcare 
decisions are ours and ours alone, in consultation with our families, 
with our physicians, with our clergy.
  This Nation is built on the bedrock of liberty. Our founding 
declaration holds that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is 
among the most essential of unalienable rights that are guaranteed to 
all Americans. The fundamental right to make decisions about our own 
bodies touches on each of these.
  The decision to have a child is one of the most personal and private 
that women and families make. And that is exactly who should make that 
decision, not some extreme politician in Washington or in State 
capitals across this Nation, not some Supreme Court Justice--people who 
know nothing about the circumstances that women and their families are 
facing.
  How dare they presume to substitute their judgment? What does it say 
about the moral righteousness, the self-righteousness of a politician 
or an unelected jurist over individual women on a matter that is so 
ultimately personal, so pivotal to every single aspect of the lives of 
women and families?
  We have already heard from the minority leader that Republicans, if 
they gain control of the Senate and the House, will seek a nationwide 
ban on abortion. It is a sad day when people at the highest levels of 
government, who are entrusted to defend our Constitution, to safeguard 
our citizens, can no longer be trusted to do either.
  Unfortunately, we know today that nearly half of the States in this 
country have already pushed through what we are calling trigger laws 
that would automatically roll back the clocks by half a century if Roe 
is repealed. That would immediately jeopardize the fates of millions of 
women across this country. Seventeen of those States would outlaw 
abortions even in cases of rape and incest. This is the extreme 
position, the position that says that we should leave up to government, 
we should leave up to elected officials the decision about whether 
families should have children, the decision about whether a woman 
should have a child. That is who should make that decision, not a 
politician here, not a politician in my State capital of Concord, not a 
Supreme Court Justice but a woman--and her family--who understands her 
own circumstances, who knows what she and her family need.
  We need to ensure that the freedom for women to make these decisions 
is guaranteed. That is what this vote is about this afternoon to codify 
Roe v. Wade.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.