[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S4545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ABORTION
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, shortly after the news leaked that the
U.S. Supreme Court was ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, Leader McConnell
acknowledged that a Federal ban on abortion was now ``possible''--his
words. Well, later today, the senior Senator from South Carolina is
going to make good on Leader McConnell's warning by introducing a
radical bill to institute a nationwide restriction on abortions.
Proposals like the one today send a clear message from MAGA
Republicans to women across the country: your body, our choice. Rather
than expanding women's rights, MAGA Republicans would curtail them
rather than give individuals the freedom to make their own healthcare
choices. They hand that power over to radical politicians.
And let me add this. Republicans are twisting themselves into
pretzels trying to explain why they want nationwide abortion bans when
they said they would leave it up to the States. Even the senior Senator
from South Carolina said a few months ago that ``if the Supreme Court
overturns Roe v. Wade,'' it would mean that ``every state will decide
if abortion is legal and on what terms.'' And yet here he is,
introducing a bill to restrict abortions nationally.
For the hard right, this has never been about States' rights. This
has never been about letting Texas choose its own path while California
takes another. No, for MAGA Republicans this has always been about
making abortion illegal everywhere.
The contrast has become clear. While Democrats want to protect a
woman's freedom to choose, MAGA Republicans want to take that right
away with proposals to ban abortions, to punish women and doctors for
carrying out abortions, and even to push bans with no exceptions for
rape or incest.
We are seeing it play out across the country. It is chilling--
chilling--to the bone. Every single American should stand in opposition
against these radical MAGA Republican views.
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