[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 180 (Thursday, December 5, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H6370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ARE AT RISK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Manning) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MANNING. Mr. Speaker, as I rise today, women's basic reproductive 
freedoms are under relentless attack by rightwing politicians and 
judges across the country.
  Over 2 years ago, Donald Trump's hand-picked MAGA Supreme Court 
Justices overturned Roe v. Wade, dismantling 50 years of judicial 
precedent.
  This catastrophic decision has left one in three women living under 
outright abortion bans and unleashed a coordinated effort to undermine 
the full range of reproductive healthcare, including access to birth 
control.
  In his concurring opinion in the Dobbs case, Justice Clarence Thomas 
explicitly called for revisiting the right to contraception. Despite 
the fact that over 90 percent of women rely on contraception at some 
point in their lives, extremist Republicans have seized on this as a 
rallying cry to target birth control.
  In Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers have proposed radical legislation 
to outlaw widely used forms of contraception, including IUDs and the 
morning-after pill.
  In States like Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee, and North Carolina, 
extremist Republicans have blocked efforts to protect access to 
contraception.
  Adding to this alarming trend, Trump's Project 2025 blueprint 
outlines a dangerous agenda to further dismantle reproductive 
healthcare, including targeting emergency contraception and insurance 
coverage for birth control.
  Despite his campaign claims of ignorance about Project 2025, Trump is 
now staffing his administration with the very architects of this 
extreme agenda.
  I refuse to stand by and let these MAGA extremists interfere with 
women's private healthcare decisions. That is why I am fighting to pass 
my Right to Contraception Act to ensure every American has the right to 
access the full range of FDA-approved birth control.
  This legislation is a safeguard against the growing threats to 
contraceptive rights. It ensures that every American can make crucial 
decisions about their health, their family planning, and their future.
  The Right to Contraception Act guarantees the right to access 
contraceptive services and protects healthcare providers' ability to 
deliver them. It also secures access to the full range of contraceptive 
methods, including birth control pills, IUDs, and emergency 
contraceptives like Plan B.
  In June, I was proud to announce a discharge petition to bring my 
bill to the House floor for a vote, and I invited my Republican 
colleagues who claim to support the right to contraception to join me 
in signing it. All these months later, not a single House Republican 
has signed that petition.
  This comes after 195 House Republicans voted against the right to 
obtain birth control in the last Congress, and the legislation was 
blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
  To quote award-winning poet and fellow North Carolinian Maya Angelou: 
``When someone shows you who they are, believe them. . . . ''
  Time and time again, extremist Republicans have shown us exactly who 
they are. Their attacks on reproductive rights didn't stop with Roe. In 
fact, they are just getting started.
  In contrast, we Democrats believe that every American has the right 
to decide whether, when, and with whom to have children. No politician 
or judge should have the power to take that right away.
  Republicans purport to believe in small government. Let them start by 
staying out of our bedrooms and our doctors' offices.
  While I may soon be departing Congress because of the outrageous 
gerrymandering by the Republican-controlled legislature in North 
Carolina, let me be clear: I will never stop fighting for women to 
receive the basic reproductive healthcare they need and deserve.

                          ____________________