[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)]
[House]
[Page H4221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       LOSING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

  (Ms. McCLELLAN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I was 1 month old when the Supreme 
Court's decision in Roe v. Wade recognized the constitutional right to 
abortion. For most of my life, I had the peace of mind that the 
decision of when, whether, and how to become a parent would be mine.
  I nearly died giving birth to my daughter 11 years ago, when my 
placenta ruptured 9 weeks before my due date. I was wheeled into the 
emergency room, and I had the peace of mind that my doctor could do 
what she felt in that moment was best, without fear of prosecution.
  That changed 4 years ago today when the Supreme Court overturned Roe 
v. Wade and made me the first generation of my family to lose a 
constitutional right in my lifetime. Now, my daughter, with fewer 
rights than me, faces threats to her reproductive freedom.
  Today, over one in three women of childbearing years lives in a State 
with abortion bans or extreme restrictions. At a time when the United 
States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any other 
industrialized nation, women are dying because they can't access the 
reproductive care they need when they need it, like Nevaeh Crain, who 
was denied care while suffering a miscarriage until she was septic and 
died.
  As chair of the Abortion Access and Rights Task Force of the 
congressional Reproductive Freedom Caucus, I am fighting so that 
everyone has the reproductive freedom they deserve.

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