[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 17 (Tuesday, January 30, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S277-S278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Abortion

  Mr. President, now on the Texas Pregnancy Study, last week, on what 
should have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I called the 
decision to overturn Roe one of the worst, most damaging decisions for 
Americans in modern history.

[[Page S278]]

  Just a couple of days later, a horrifying new study was released in 
the Journal of the American Medical Association, showing the 
devastating effects of the Roe reversal for women in America. According 
to this study, the State of Texas alone saw over 26,000 rape-related 
pregnancies in the year and a half since Texas outlawed all abortions, 
with zero exceptions for rape.
  Let me say that again because the results are staggering, 
confounding, frightening: According to a new study in the Journal of 
the American Medical Association, the State of Texas alone saw over 
26,000 rape-related pregnancies in the year and a half since Texas 
outlawed all abortions, and they have zero exceptions for rape.
  There are over 58,000 total rape-related pregnancies in States with 
total abortion bans and zero exceptions for rape.
  The numbers from this study are shocking. They are heartbreaking. And 
it is all the more maddening because the hard-right abortion 
restrictions in Texas are as cruel as they come: forced pregnancies, no 
exception for rape, no exception for incest.
  Not long ago, the abortion restrictions in Texas would have been 
considered on the fringe of the fringe. Today, sadly, it is a reality 
for women in post-Roe America.
  Make no mistake about it--an America where abortion is outlawed with 
zero exceptions is precisely--precisely--what the hard right wants. The 
hard right doesn't care about exceptions, even for rape or incest. They 
want the freedom of choice to be extinct, period--no ands, ifs, or 
buts. Democrats will never let that stand. We will never stop fighting 
to protect a woman's right to choose. And Republicans won't be able to 
run from this horror they created later this year when the American 
people go to the polls.