[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 10 (Thursday, January 18, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    51ST ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE

  (Mr. CASTEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the 51st anniversary of Roe 
v. Wade. That decision, which recognized women's individual right to 
bodily autonomy, has now been supplanted by a Supreme Court that 
effectively said that the Federal Government isn't here to protect your 
individual rights because that is a States' rights issue now.
  House Republicans, having cheered injecting States' rights into your 
individual private lives would now like to bring the Federal Government 
into the conversation.
  If you don't believe me, Mr. Speaker, just look at what they are 
doing.
  They passed legislation this term that would create a Federal 
prohibition against women who are serving in our military from 
traveling to get an abortion if they are stationed in a State that 
doesn't respect their individual rights.
  They pushed legislation that would create a Federal prohibition on 
women from accessing medication abortion, even if that is legal in 
their State.
  Nonetheless, here is the simple truth: The Republican Party with a 
big assist from a misogynistic Supreme Court took rights away from 167 
million American women, granted them to States, and are now trying to 
take those rights away and give them to the Federal Government.
  Here is the truth: Abortion has never been a States' rights issue, 
and it has never been a Federal rights issue. It has always been a 
women's rights issue, and I hope that some day that is not partisan.

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