[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 75 (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3097-S3098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Abortion

  Mr. President, now, on the Florida abortion ban, this morning, 
unfortunately, the people of Florida woke up to one of the cruelest, 
most extreme, most dangerous abortion bans in the country. Starting 
today, Florida is outlawing most abortions after just 6 weeks--just 6 
weeks--before many women even know that they are pregnant.
  Let me say that again because the American people need to hear what 
Republican States are doing. A new Florida law goes into effect today 
that bans most abortions after just 6 weeks, before many women even 
know they are pregnant.
  Florida's new abortion ban is draconian to the core. It rips away 
women's freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies. It 
blocks thousands of women from accessing basic reproductive care. And, 
horrifically, it leaves millions of women across the Southeast--already 
an abortion care desert--with little or no options.

[[Page S3098]]

  If you live anywhere in the Southeast, the odds are now that you need 
to drive as far as Virginia or farther just to get reproductive care, a 
burden most people can't realistically take on. It is utter cruelty.
  Sadly, abortion bans like the ones in Florida didn't happen in a 
vacuum. Today is yet another consequence of the hard-right MAGA Supreme 
Court's disastrous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. It is the 
consequence of decades of the hard right trying to pack our courts with 
radical jurists.
  In case people forgot, President Donald Trump proudly reminded us a 
month ago that he and MAGA Republicans are to blame for the 
annihilation of Roe. To this day, the former President and MAGA 
Republicans continue to boast of their radical views on abortion, 
despite those views being widely out of step with the American people.
  Let us not forget that the majority of Floridians--the vast 
majority--don't agree with Florida's new abortion ban, much less the 
vast majority of Americans.
  Make no mistake, Republicans will have to answer for their anti-
abortion records today, tomorrow, and at the ballot box in November.