[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 130 (Wednesday, August 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3879-S3883]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4723
Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, in the month since the Supreme Court struck
down Roe v. Wade, the assault on reproductive rights by anti-choice
MAGA Republicans--well, it has been relentless.
We have seen and heard the horror stories of women in States that
have outlawed abortion. We have seen women and even young girls--
children as young as 10--who were raped and unable to get an abortion
in their own States. We have seen examples of States looking to
restrict--restrict--a woman's ability to travel to other States--
restrict a woman's ability to travel to other States--to get the
medical care, the often lifesaving care, they desperately need. In
fact, this is an issue that Republicans in this Chamber objected to
when Democrats brought up a bill to guarantee the fundamental right of
women to travel in this country in order to seek care.
MAGA Republicans--oh, wait. They want to strip women of their
freedoms, and they want to strip women of their ability to choose what
happens to their own bodies. If MAGA extremists have their way in
Congress, they will enact a rigid--a rigid--nationwide abortion ban
which will threaten women and their doctors with jail time.
Look at what is already happening: Anti-choice States are working to
stop women from going to pro-choice States to seek care, and now they
are even going after the doctors--after the doctors--in those States,
who are simply doing their jobs by taking care of their patients.
This is utterly and completely outrageous. We cannot allow this to
happen. That is why Senators Murray, Padilla, Lujan, and I introduced
legislation to protect doctors in States like Nevada--where abortion
remains legal--from facing prosecution by anti-choice States.
Let me be clear. No doctor should ever be jailed for providing women
with the reproductive and often lifesaving care they need wherever--
wherever--those women are from.
Our bill, the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, would
do exactly what is in the name. It would let doctors--medical
professionals--provide reproductive care in States like Nevada where
abortion is legal, without fear of prosecution or fear of jail time.
Our bill would empower the Department of Justice to protect women and
their doctors in pro-choice States from anti-choice States' attempts to
prosecute them. This means that if a woman from Texas travels to my
State of Nevada, a pro-choice State, the Nevada doctor she sees
cannot--cannot--be prosecuted under Texas's extreme abortion ban.
We need to pass this now, without delay and without objections,
because we must protect women, and we must protect their doctors. We
must pass the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act now.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Let
Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act.
I am honored to be here with the Senator from Nevada, Senator Rosen.
She is one of the sponsors of this bill, along with Senator Murray and
Senator Padilla, who is also here, and Senator Ben Ray Lujan and myself
in addition to over 20 of our colleagues.
We must pass this bill today. Almost 6 weeks ago--that is all the
time it has been. It seems like it has been a lot longer. It has been
only 6 weeks since the Supreme Court issued a rule shredding nearly
five decades of precedent of protecting a woman's right to make her own
healthcare decisions.
Now, because of that decision to shred 50 years of precedent, women
are at the mercy of State laws or new State laws or Governors. They
literally ran to the State capitols--a number of legislators--to see
who could get there first to introduce and pass the most extreme bill.
Literally, women are at the mercy of State laws that are a patchwork
across the country and that, in many cases, leave them with fewer
rights than their mothers or their grandmothers had.
This is in spite of what the American people want, as 70 to 80
percent of Americans believe that it is a decision that should be made
by a woman and her doctor and not by politicians--not by my colleagues
on the other side of the aisle. They don't want them making their
decisions for them. They want to make their decisions with their
doctors.
As if it were not proof enough, after having come here every single
week since the Dobbs decision was issued to remind people of where the
actual public is out there, look at what happened last night. We heard
the majority loud and clear in the Sunflower State of Kansas. The
people of Kansas, in a record turnout--doubling the number of Kansans
who voted in the last midterm election--voted 59 to 41 percent to
protect reproductive freedom. That is more than 530,000 Kansans who
showed up at an odd election time. In the middle of the summer, on a
hot day in August, they showed up to protect women's rights. For
context, fewer than 460,000 Kansans even cast a ballot in the 2018
primary. That is what we are dealing with; yet we now have 530,000 who
showed up to vote on one side to say: A woman's right should be
protected in their State.
This is a wake-up call to my colleagues who have been resisting
action when it comes to allowing women to travel, when it comes to
allowing women to be able to make a choice about even contraception,
when it comes to, in this bill, letting doctors provide reproductive
healthcare.
This doesn't come down to red States or blue States, my friends.
People across the country, as I have argued vociferously before--and
now I have my proof point--whether they be Independents, Democrats, or
moderate Republicans, when they show up, women's
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rights are protected. And guess what. They are showing up.
Since this decision came down, I have come to the floor of the Senate
again and again with my colleagues to push for commonsense bills to
protect women in this post-Roe world. We have tried to preserve a
woman's right to travel to other States; that was Senator Cortez
Masto's bill. We brought a bill to the floor to give women reliable
access to family planning services; that was my colleague Senator Tina
Smith's bill. We tried to pass legislation to make sure everyone could
access contraception as well as accurate information about
contraception.
We thank all our colleagues for their work on these bills, and I want
to specifically mention Senator Murray for her work. We are not giving
up, not when so much is on the line.
Many of the biggest fights for reproductive freedom are happening on
State and local levels. Women as well as their doctors are now in the
crosshairs. Republican State lawmakers are drafting legislation that
would make it a crime to provide abortion care to a patient in another
State where it is legal.
Let's get this straight. They would make it a crime, where you can't
get an abortion--like that little 10-year-old girl couldn't get an
abortion, when she was raped, in her own State. She goes to another
State, and now we have legislators in certain States who are trying to
make it a crime for her to do that. State legislators in Texas and
Arkansas have indicated they are considering these kinds of laws, and
the Governor of South Dakota, which shares a border with my State,
refused to rule out a similar law.
Doctors in Minnesota, where reproductive rights are firmly protected,
could be prosecuted for providing completely legal medical procedures
for people in maybe North Dakota or South Dakota or Iowa who come to
the great State of Minnesota.
The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act is a
straightforward solution. It protects doctors giving abortion care in
States where it is legal and stops extreme attempts to investigate or
punish them for doing their job.
Women and the providers who help them are already facing so much
uncertainty because of the Dobbs decision. We should all be able to
agree that, at the very least, States shouldn't be able to target,
punish, or arrest out-of-State doctors who are following their own
State laws.
Today, each and every one of my colleagues has the opportunity to
make clear where they stand. They did that in Kansas last night; they
were able to vote. Now, let's have a real vote on this--not stop the
vote, actually get it done.
I see my friend Senator Blumenthal, who has been such a leader on
this issue, out of the State of Connecticut is here as well as Senator
Padilla.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, first, I thank my colleague and friend
from the great State of Minnesota for being such a steadfast champion
of this issue over so many years and such an articulate and eloquent
spokesman.
I am proud to join her and other colleagues, as we have done, week
after week since the Dobbs decision, trying to protect a woman's right
to decide when and whether to have children, a woman's basic control
over her own body, a woman's freedom that the Dobbs decision stripped
away and put in the hands of politicians.
The politicians in robes on the Supreme Court, in effect, took those
rights away from the women of America, after 50 years of precedent and
after everyone thought these rights were absolutely secure.
When I first introduced the Women's Health Protection Act in 2013,
the idea that Roe v. Wade would be overruled was absolutely
unimaginable. We were trying to fight the disruption of rights piece by
piece through State laws that required admitting privileges or width of
hallways or waiting times or other kinds of restrictions that
constituted an unconstitutional burden on women's rights.
Now, we are in the post-Roe world where the unthinkable has become
real. The unimaginable is with us right now, and worse is to come.
The hit list of this Supreme Court includes contraception, marriage
equality, the basic right to privacy that is enshrined in the
Constitution, the right to be let alone from government interference.
So my Republican colleagues who think we are being alarmists, the
unthinkable is with us right now. And we need to provide assurance and
certainty to the women of America that they can travel to seek abortion
services; that family planning options will be available to them; that
contraception rights will be secure. And each time we have come to the
floor to seek that recognition of basic rights, the Republicans have
blocked us.
So now we are here on a measure called let doctors provide
reproductive healthcare--Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care.
There is a really cruel irony to this effort. The doctors and nurses
and healthcare providers who were our heros and remain our heros--even
more so now--during the pandemic and afterward, can be prosecuted
criminally for trying to save a woman's life. An abortion that is
necessary to that woman's life may be the mission of a doctor who then
can be prosecuted criminally.
Now, in Connecticut, we have said--our legislature has made it
absolutely clear that nobody in Connecticut is going to be prosecuted,
no law enforcement official in Connecticut is going to cooperate with
Texas or any other States that criminalize abortion services, no
evidence from Connecticut is going to be made available to an overly
zealous or aggressive prosecutor hell-bent on going after a doctor or a
healthcare provider or a woman who seeks abortion services, but
Connecticut is the exception. Its safe harbor makes it unusual, not
common.
So we need a national law, Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health
Care Act, that protects the healthcare givers and providers of our
Nation to do their job. The Hippocratic oath is, for them, something
that goes as deep as our oath of office for us. We are sworn to uphold
the Constitution; they, in effect, take an oath to save lives. That is
their job, and their lives should not be in jeopardy, nor should their
livelihood, simply because they are doing their job.
We have seen, time and time again, that this Supreme Court has no
respect for precedent. We have seen State legislators who have no
respect for reproductive rights and healthcare. We cannot rely on false
reassurances made by Republican colleagues here or anyone around the
country because history has already shown us that this Supreme Court
has on its hit list these fundamental rights and expanding the
restrictions on them.
So I ask my colleagues to join us in unanimous consent for this
measure. That motion will be made shortly. I hope that we can join in
ensuring that individuals have access to quality healthcare regardless
of their ZIP Code, no matter where they live. The women of America
deserve this basic right, and the healthcare providers who enable them
to protect themselves and who save lives deserve the assurance that
they are not going to be the target of a prosecutor hell-bent on making
a name for himself or a State legislature seeking to make political
points at the expense of a healthcare provider.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, colleagues, on January 24, just 5\1/2\
weeks ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade just weeks after
Republicans in this Chamber blocked our push to codify the right to an
abortion into Federal law.
So since January 24, Democrats have been fighting to ensure that
abortion care remains accessible. We pushed to pass a bill that would
protect the fundamental right to travel to States where abortion is
still legal; Republicans blocked it. We pushed to pass a commonsense
bill to expand access to family planning services; Republicans blocked
that one too. We pushed to codify the right to contraception;
Republicans blocked it. At every turn, Republicans have taken extreme
and out-of-touch positions by blocking these commonsense bills.
So today Democrats are standing up to protect doctors, nurses, and
other healthcare professionals who are increasingly under attack just
for doing
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their jobs and providing legal abortions.
Colleagues, I am proud to join Senator Murray and our colleagues in
this effort to pass the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care
Act to ensure doctors can provide the reproductive healthcare that
women need. Abortion access, after all, is essential healthcare.
Now, I have seen firsthand the incredible work that providers in
California do to provide critical reproductive care. Most recently, I
have visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Los Angeles. We are already
seeing a chilling effect among healthcare providers driven by the
uncertainty of their legal liability--like the alarming lawsuit that
was filed against the provider in Indiana who legally helped a 10-year-
old rape victim terminate her unwanted pregnancy. So we must make it
clear for healthcare providers that abortion restrictions cannot be
allowed to reach beyond the borders of anti-abortion States.
The decision of whether or not to have a child is one of the most
personal decisions that someone can make--for the students who choose
to finish high school before starting a family, for the survivors of
sexual assault whose abortion reaffirms the right to choose for their
own bodies, for the parents who desperately wanted a child only to
learn devastating news about dangerous health risks, for patients whose
lives were saved by an abortion because abortion is often critical
medical care. Access to abortion should not be dictated by politicians
and lawyers.
California and many other States across the country refuse to turn
the clock back to an era when abortions were outlawed and dangerous.
And, as we saw last night in Kansas, the majority of Kansas voters--in
fact, the majority of Americans--agree that women should have access to
abortion care.
So we must pass the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Healthcare Act
to protect the courageous women and men delivering essential medical
care to those who need it.
While Republicans continue to block our efforts to protect
reproductive rights, Democrats won't back down. In the face of these
unending attacks on reproductive freedom, we will not give up the fight
to protect a woman's right to safe abortion access.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Rosen). The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I want to start by recognizing the
overwhelming victory for the right to abortion in Kansas last night.
Since the day the Supreme Court struck down the right to abortion and
upended the lives of women across the country, the American people have
been using their voices to speak out against Republicans' extreme bans.
And now, for the first time since the Dobbs decision, they have had
the chance to speak with their votes, and they sent a message loud and
clear: People do not want their fundamental rights stripped away. They
will not forget Republicans' cruelty in dragging us back half a
century, and when abortion is at stake, they are not going to stay on
the sidelines.
Last night, the people of Kansas sent a message as clear as any I
have ever seen in politics. Now, today, we are going to see if
Republicans are finally getting that message or if they are going to
continue to ignore the American people, because Democrats are here
today with legislation to protect doctors providing legal abortion care
and make sure they can do their jobs, practice medicine, and save lives
without the threat of legal action.
I really can't believe that we need this bill at all. We are talking
about doctors who are following the law and simply want to provide care
to their patients. It is not enough for Republicans that their cruel
abortion bans have meant appointments that have been canceled;
prescriptions that have been denied; doctors who have been forced to
wait until patients got sicker, to wait until women are actually at
death's door before they can provide lifesaving care.
Nope, they are going to go further than that. Now they are coming
after doctors providing legal abortion care too. I really can't
emphasize that enough. These doctors are following the law and are
still facing legal threats and harassment.
Right now, in Indiana, a doctor is being investigated after providing
an abortion for a 10-year-old who was raped. Think about that. A doctor
is being investigated after doing their job, after simply providing
healthcare--care that can be lifesaving, care that was entirely legal
in their State, care that, up until the Republicans' far-right Supreme
Court overturned Roe, was legal across the country.
The fact that Dr. Bernard is being investigated after just doing her
job and helping her patient is chilling.
I want to be very clear. While Dr. Bernard's story may be in
headlines across the country, she is not the only doctor facing
threats, and she will not be the last. At this very moment, Republican
State lawmakers are drafting legislation that would make it a crime to
provide abortion care to a resident even in another State where it is
legal.
From talking with doctors back home in Washington, I can tell you,
they are following this closely and they are worried. I have heard from
providers back in Spokane and across Washington State who are worried
that they could face lawsuits that threaten their practices and their
livelihoods just for doing their jobs, just for providing care that
patients need--care that is, once again, completely legal in my State.
So Democrats are here today standing up for doctors. We have been
drafting a bill of our own, the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive
Healthcare Act, and we are proud that Dr. Bernard herself supports this
bill.
I want to thank my colleagues Senator Rosen from Nevada, Senator
Lujan from New Mexico, and Senator Padilla from California for their
partnership and critical work on this bill, as well as my colleague
Representative Schrier from my home State of Washington, who is leading
the legislation in the House.
This is another simple bill to address a threat we know is far too
real. The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Healthcare Act will protect
doctors providing legal abortion care and make sure that they can
practice medicine and save lives without fear of legal threats and
intimidation. It will make clear that the attacks we have seen on
doctors are unacceptable; that politicians should not be harassing or
scaring or investigating or threatening or punishing doctors for
providing care that is perfectly legal, that patients want, and that,
in many cases, is even necessary to save lives.
Democrats are going to try to pass this bill right now because we
believe no doctor should be punished for caring for patients and
providing legal abortion care. And if Republicans who have claimed they
don't want to punish doctors actually mean it, if those words are more
than just an empty talking point, more than another broken promise,
they will stay out of the way and let us get this done today.
But if they don't--if they block us like they blocked the legislation
to protect the right to travel across State lines for an abortion, or
like they blocked the legislation to expand family planning services,
or like they blocked legislation to protect the right to
contraceptives--their obstruction will continue to speak louder than
any of their hollow claims about actually caring for patients or
families or women.
And even if they stop us from getting this bill done today, they are
not going to stop us from continuing to put them on the record and hold
them accountable for their positions. They are not going to stop us
from doing everything we can to protect the rights and the people they
are putting in grave danger. And they are going to have to answer to
the people they represent--to patients, to providers, to families--
whose lives they are turning upside down.
Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous
consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further
consideration of S. 4723 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time
and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid
upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, reserving the right to object, many
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Americans are not going to see eye to eye on the issue of abortion. I
am glad to see that the Supreme Court did what it did and returned that
decision to the people, to the State legislatures. Currently, Indiana
is debating that issue.
This bill denies State legislators the right to make laws protecting
life in their own States. The bill appears to be dealing with traveling
freely across the Nation to get an abortion, but a literal reading of
the text proves the true intent of the bill. It is, I think, a backdoor
into trying to upend what should be neighboring State legislatures'
responsibility. It should be the people in their State that make the
decision.
Let's look at section 3(a)(3) of the bill, stating ``no individual,
entity, or State may restrict . . . a health care provider or any
individual entity from providing or assisting a health care provider
with reproductive health care services for an individual who does not
reside''--who does not reside--``in the State in which the services are
to be provided.''
Sections 3(a)(1) and 3(a)(2) of the bill specifically include the
phrase ``lawful in the State.'' Why is that omitted from the previous
clause? I think it is because this bill is an attempt to undermine
State laws that protect life by allowing abortions for anyone who
crosses State lines and is not a resident of that State.
Not to belabor it, I want to read it one more time, slowly. Once
again, this bill reads:
No individual, entity, or State may prevent, restrict,
impede, or disadvantage . . . any individual from providing
or assisting reproductive health care services for an
individual who does not reside in the State.
Senator Murray did not mention that it also gives the Department of
Justice $40 million in grant funding to help people sue States that
enact policies to protect life. The Department of Health and Human
Services is given another $40 million in funding for any eligible
center at Secretary Becerra's discretion. This funding is not protected
by the Hyde amendment.
We should not spend $80 million to undermine State laws on life or
impose a legislative backdoor for abortion on demand across the Nation.
For this reason, I oppose this bill, and I do object to it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, we have now seen time and again, over
the last few weeks, that when it comes to protecting rights and
providing healthcare for women and patients and families, Republicans'
promises are empty and their positions are extreme.
Democrats just offered a bill to protect the rights of providers to
be able to provide abortions in legal States. Democrats recently
offered a bill to protect the right to travel across State lines to get
an abortion. They blocked it. We offered a bill to expand our Nation's
longstanding Family Planning Program. They blocked that. We offered a
bill to protect the right to contraceptives, and they blocked that too.
Today, again, we offered a bill simply to protect doctors performing
legal abortions, and they blocked that too.
Each one of these bills was incredibly straightforward. Each one of
these is common sense. Each time, Republicans have stood in the way of
basic protections of Americans' reproductive freedoms.
Democrats are not giving up, and, as we saw last night, the American
people are not either. We are going to fight for the right to an
abortion. We are going to fight for doctors who are doing their jobs
and doing what is best for their patients. We are going to fight for
women making their own decisions about their own bodies, their
families, and their futures.
And we are going to make sure everyone knows and no one forgets
exactly who is standing in the way, exactly where Republicans stand in
this fight.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
If no time is yielded, time will be charged equally to both sides.
The Senator from Ohio.