[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 40 (Thursday, March 2, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S630-S631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Mifepristone

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, today, I begin an effort to provide 
regular updates to the Senate and the country about the devastating 
consequences for women in every State if Texas Judge Kacsmaryk issues a 
ruling banning mifepristone nationwide.
  Two weeks ago, I stood on the Senate floor and laid out what has to 
happen if and when this decision comes down. President Biden and the 
Food and Drug Administration must ignore it. The Food and Drug 
Administration has the authority it needs to keep this medication on 
the market without interruption, regardless of what this ruling says.
  I have already laid out the rationale for why the case is absurd, 
meritless, and lacks any legal standing, as well as the FDA's legal 
authority to ignore such a ruling.
  Today, I am not going to rehash those important points. I want to 
discuss what I have heard over the last couple of weeks about the human 
cost if every woman in this country loses access to mifepristone. 
Republicans on the Supreme Court said that the issue of abortion ought 
to be returned to the States, that the country shouldn't have a ``one 
size fits all'' policy on this subject that is so essential to 
protecting the privacy rights of women in our country.
  I am going to talk about the States for a minute or two.
  My home State of Oregon has some of the strongest protections for 
reproductive health in the Nation. Abortion is legal. If you have 
health insurance, it is required to cover this critical priority. If 
you don't, you can still access care. There are no waiting periods. You 
can get abortion medication via telemedicine and by mail, something 
that is crucial in large States and small States with very large rural 
populations, like mine. In fact, despite the dangerous Dobbs decision, 
access to reproductive care has been expanding in Oregon, partially to 
accommodate women traveling from nearby States whose own home State 
laws deny them this critical right to privacy.
  Oregon has leaders like Governor Tina Kotek and Attorney General 
Ellen Rosenblum fighting to keep mifepristone legal and accessible to 
women in our State. I am proud to come from a State where the law 
reflects the fact that a woman's right to privacy is paramount and a 
woman's right to choose is hers and hers alone.
  But if the plaintiffs and the anti-abortion activists prevail in that 
case in Texas, everything changes--everything changes--for the people 
facing important reproductive decisions every day and everywhere in the 
United States. We are talking about every single State--every one.
  Despite strong laws on the books, women in my State of Oregon stand 
to lose mifepristone, a drug that is used now in more than 50 percent 
of abortions. So much for the idea of States' rights. All that talk 
about returning abortion law to the States is just going straight out 
the window.
  I have said it before, and I will repeat it here. So often, the 
Republican Party often seems concerned about the States' rights only 
when they think a State is right. Otherwise, they seem happy to take 
over and tell the States what to do. Well, the people I am honored to 
represent, Oregonians, don't appreciate that selective application of 
their philosophy, but here it is.
  Because of one judge, handpicked by Donald Trump, in the 16th largest 
city in Texas, there is serious potential that soon Americans, from one 
side of the country to the other and everywhere in between, will no 
longer be able to access the safest, most effective, and most relied on 
form of abortion care.
  This is not leaving decisions to the States, like the U.S. Supreme 
Court told us would happen back in June.
  Look at the Dobbs decision. That was the very foundation of the Dobbs 
decision. And, no shock to anybody, that is not what is being seen 
today. Here is what is going to ensue when the reckless decision in 
Texas comes down. We know that providers are already being stretched 
very thin. They are harassed and subject to vile threats. They are 
going to be thrown into a landscape of chaos and confusion.
  Over the last few months, I have heard nonstop from these heroic 
medical professionals in my State. They worry there will be lines out 
the doors of women needing help. They worry about long wait times for 
the women who are fortunate enough to eventually receive in-person 
care. They worry about the women who will never make it to a doctor's 
office because they live in a rural county or lack the means to make 
the journey that will now be necessary to receive abortion care. They 
worry about what will happen next. When will another judge in another 
State that looks nothing like Oregon make it so that these providers 
are not able to treat women seeking to exercise their privacy rights?
  This is not some far-fetched slippery slope. It is happening now--
now--right in front of our eyes.
  Women have relied on mifepristone for more than 20 years. I held the 
first congressional hearing on this drug in 1990, when I was a Member 
of the other body. And finally--finally--there has been access to this 
drug, and it provides freedom to women to make their own private 
medical decisions and face far less stigma. That fundamental right is 
potentially about to be further gutted.
  This is America. Aren't we for freedom--freedom to determine our own 
lives and futures, freedom to decide whether and when to have a family?
  We have heard lots of horror stories of life before Roe. There are 
too many people with immense power in this country who tragically want 
to yank America back to those times. I doubt those people have given a 
moment's consideration to the danger women face when a pregnancy goes 
wrong, how their lives can be at risk.
  This is about women's health and survival. This is about control over 
their lives, control over their bodies. It is about depriving 
Oregonians and women everywhere of their fundamental right to privacy.
  I am here to say that, unfortunately, these anti-abortion activists 
aren't going to stop until abortion in every form and in every State is 
simply banned. The need to control women's bodies is not going to end 
at attacking mifepristone, which I would say, as I did earlier, has a 
long record--a long record--grounded not in political rhetoric but in 
scientific evidence for being safe and effective.
  It will not end with the topic of abortion either. Rightwing 
extremists are coming after access to reproductive healthcare more 
broadly. Some lawmakers and their allies have filed legislation and 
lawsuits to block access to birth control--birth control.

  I remember the President of the Senate helping us in this body to 
champion for so many years those priorities. And now we have 
legislation to block access to birth control, lifesaving cancer 
screenings, HIV prevention. The list goes on.
  As these attacks go forward, we also know who is going to be hurt the 
most--people of modest means, people in rural areas, people of color, 
immigrants, LGBTQ Americans.
  I said it 2 weeks ago when I was on the floor to discuss the case, I 
will say

[[Page S631]]

it again: Enough, enough, enough. No more sitting back and just letting 
things happen. I don't want to be back here in a few days, but I fear 
that will be the case.
  Let me talk about political change. Ever since the days when I was 
director at the Gray Panthers, the senior citizens group, I always said 
political change rarely starts here in Washington, DC, and trickles 
down. It starts at the grassroots level. What we really need now is a 
nationwide mobilization to protect a woman's right to privacy and the 
right to make these choices for herself. What I would like to ask 
today, for everybody who shares that view, is to go on out there and 
keep mobilizing. Talk to your city council member, talk to your mayor, 
talk to your State legislator, talk to anybody who has an election 
certificate about how important this is to you. Momentum is needed more 
now than ever to ensure that mifepristone stays legal and accessible.
  I will close with this. The FDA, using the authority it already has, 
needs to keep mifepristone on the market without any interruption, 
regardless of Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling. And we the people need to 
mobilize in Oregon, in Michigan, in Florida, and in every nook and 
cranny of the Nation.