[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11123]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       MASSACHUSETTS BUFFER ZONE

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, since 1973, when the Supreme Court 
decided that a woman's right to choose was constitutionally protected, 
women's health clinics across the country have been targeted by 
violence and other criminal activities by extremists.
  The crimes are alarming: harassment, arson, acid attacks, 
obstruction, violent threats, and even murder. Women's safety has been 
repeatedly put at risk simply for exercising a constitutional right.
  In the past 10 years, there have been approximately 75,000 incidents 
of violence against abortion providers in the United States. That is 
unacceptable. We should always remember that each of these victims of 
violence has a name, a family, and a story.
  In 1994, a gunman killed two people and wounded five others at two 
clinics in Massachusetts. One of these victims was 25-year-old Shannon 
Lowney, a daughter of public schoolteachers, a beloved sister, and a 
volunteer who worked domestically and internationally with poor 
families and children.
  Shannon worked as a receptionist and Spanish translator at Planned 
Parenthood in Brookline, MA. She worked there not for the pay but 
because she fundamentally believed women had a right to affordable 
health care. She wanted to do her part to ensure that patients at a 
vulnerable and stressful time in life were greeted with a smile. Five 
days after Christmas in 1994 she was fatally shot in the neck at a 
Planned Parenthood clinic by an extremist protester.
  Shannon's story is just one of the many tragedies caused by violence 
against women exercising their rights.
  In 2007, after the laws on the books proved inadequate, Massachusetts 
ensured that there would be fair and balanced laws that created a 
buffer zone of 35 feet around the entry of reproductive health care 
facilities.
  This law was intended to protect people such as Shannon and the 
thousands of women and staff who visit and work at clinics.
  The buffer zone law worked. Massachusetts women could exercise their 
fundamental right to health care without running a gauntlet of abuse. 
According to a survey of reproductive health care centers across the 
country, a majority of facilities with buffer zones experienced a 
decrease in criminal activity after the buffer zone was instituted.
  Today the Supreme Court of the United States took away those buffer 
zones of safety when it struck down the Massachusetts buffer zone law, 
effectively undoing the historic progress we have made in ensuring that 
women are protected when accessing reproductive health care and 
exercising their constitutional rights.
  Today's Supreme Court ruling puts women at risk simply for exercising 
their constitutional rights. Shannon's brother Liam visited me on the 
day that this case was argued before the Supreme Court. Their family is 
representative of what has happened across this country in terms of the 
endangerment of women when they seek to exercise their constitutional 
rights.
  So today is a sad day. It is not just a sad day for America but in 
particular for Shannon's family because they put a lot on the line to 
ensure that this case was brought before the Supreme Court of the 
United States.
  The Court's decision makes it more difficult for States to guarantee 
women's reproductive rights and more likely that acts of violence and 
intimidation against women seeking reproductive health care will occur.
  With reproductive rights under attack across the country like never 
before, it is imperative that we ensure the basic safety of all women 
and staff at Planned Parenthood and other health facilities.
  We should be expanding access to safe reproductive health care for 
women, not restricting it. That is unfortunately what today is going to 
represent in the history of health care for women in our country.
  The Presiding Officer is a national leader on these issues, fighting 
for the rights of women. I stand with her and with the other Members of 
the Senate but, more importantly, also with ordinary families across 
this country and Planned Parenthood and all the women in Massachusetts 
and this country who believe every woman seeking reproductive health 
care should be safe and protected.
  I am proud that all Massachusetts law enforcement officials will 
continue to use every legal tool available to ensure the safety and 
privacy of women and clinic staff. Today is a historic day. 
Unfortunately, it is one of which our country should not be proud.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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