[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 21645-21647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE STATE OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN AMERICA

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 18, 2015

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, we face a real problem in America as it 
relates to the rights of women and how this will one day impact our 
young girls.
  We live in a great country founded on principles of liberty, justice 
and equality.
  Throughout history, we have grown and developed into a nation where 
women hold some of the most prestigious and powerful positions in our 
country and throughout the world, as scientists, astronauts, 
businesswomen, educators, government officials, Supreme Court justices, 
and hopefully one day soon, the President of our United States.
  However, as a global champion and advocate of international human 
rights and the rule of law, the United States still has a long ways to 
go guaranteeing equal access to legal rights and protections for all 
women in America.

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  The United Nations Working Group on Discrimination against Women in 
the Law and Practice (U.N. Working Group) recently issued a sobering 
statement and assessment, with a full report to follow in June 2016, 
delineating an infringement on the rights of women in America.
  Upon visiting several states throughout the country, including my 
home state of Texas, the U.N. Working Group concluded that women in the 
United States inexplicably lag behind international human rights 
standards.
  Pointing to data and research on public and political representation, 
economic and social rights, and health and safety protections, experts 
in the U.N. Working Group boldly acknowledged that there is a myth that 
women in the United States already enjoy all of the expected standards 
of rights and protections because they live in America.
  A woman's fundamental reproductive right is tied to their economic 
independence, empowerment and wellbeing of her family.
  The reality is, women in the United States are experiencing continued 
discrimination and daunting disparities that curtail their ability to 
fully participate as equal members of society.
  The primary areas and statistics noted, include the following:
  Women have risen to some of the highest levels of legislative and 
executive representation over the years, yet with only 4 of 15 cabinet 
members, 19.4% of Congressional Members and an average of 24.9% of 
state legislatures, the U.S. ranks at only 72 in the global market of 
women represented in public and political positions.
  While the number of women justices has significantly increased, women 
litigants' access to justice is severely limited.
  Although women vote in higher percentages than men, women's access to 
voting is under attack in states like Alabama where increased voter ID 
requirements pose unprecedented barriers.
  Women constitute nearly half of the US labor force, at a 
participation rate of 57%. Yet, equal economic opportunity is severely 
lacking given deficient or nonexistent mandatory standards for 
workplace accommodations for pregnant women, post-natal mothers and 
persons with care responsibilities.
  What also remains a shameful truth in America, is the gender wage gap 
which has remained at or near 21% over the past decade. Shockingly, 
women with higher levels of education experience the largest earning 
gaps, as do minority women regardless of educational attainment.
  The percentage of women in poverty has increased over the past 
decade, from 12.1% to 14.5%, with a higher rate of poverty than men. As 
such, women are exposed to higher rates of homelessness and violence 
without adequate protections in place in shelters and housing support 
options.
  Women in detention facilities throughout the country are also 
experiencing increasingly high rates of over-incarceration, sexual 
violence, shackling while pregnant, solitary confinement, lack of 
alternative custodial sentencing for women with dependent children, and 
inadequate access to health care and re-entry programs.
  Migrant women traveling to the U.S., many victims of trafficking and 
violence, including sexual violence, are kept in detention centers with 
children for prolonged periods of time.
  Notably, the criminalization of women in prostitution places them in 
unjust, vulnerable and stigmatized situations that are contrary to 
international human rights law.
  The U.N. has also pointed out that women, particularly black and 
LGBTQ women, in the U.S. experience deplorable police brutality and 
increased incidents of homicide by police.
  Even though women own over \1/3\ of firms in the U.S., primarily in 
small and medium sized businesses, these businesses face greater 
barriers in obtaining low cost capital from sources such as the Small 
Business Administration--which awards less than 5% of federal contracts 
to women-owned business.
  Lastly, one of the most alarming deficiencies for women in America is 
the lack of access to basic health care and the imposition of 
devastating barriers to reproductive health and rights.
  Too many women are suffering dire and deadly consequences.
  Between 1990 and 2013, the maternal mortality rate for women in the 
U.S. has increased by 136%.
  Black women are nearly 4 times more likely to die in childbirth, and 
states with high poverty rates have a 77% higher maternal mortality 
rate.
  Our global experts and allies acknowledge that even though women's 
reproductive rights in America are constitutionally protected, access 
to reproductive health services are severely abridged by states' 
imposition of sweeping barriers and restrictions.
  For instance, in many states, women must undergo unjustified and 
invasive medical procedures; endure groundless waiting periods; be 
subjected to harassment, violence or other threatening conditions that 
remain constant throughout all reproductive health care clinics; and 
forced to forgo treatment or engage in lengthy and costly travel due to 
closure of clinics faced with burdensome licensing conditions.
  These restrictions disproportionately discriminate against poor 
women.
  The United States can and should do better.
  It is unacceptable that women in America are facing a reproductive 
health care crisis so dire that the global community is denouncing it 
as a human rights violation.
  Sadly, the direction States are taking will only further dismantle 
women's access to affordable and trustworthy reproductive healthcare.
  Clinics are shutting down at alarming rates throughout the country as 
a result of devastating restrictions and barriers imposed throughout 
Texas.
  A Texas statute known as HB2 (House Bill 2), was enacted several 
years ago claiming to promote women's health, when in fact it only set 
in motion dangerous restrictions on women's access to reproductive 
health care.
  In addition to constant attacks on funding for reproductive health 
care clinics, abortion providers in Texas were forced to undergo 
impossible million dollar renovations and upgrades.
  Denying hundreds of thousands of women health care services in Texas, 
nearly half of all reproductive health care clinics were forced to shut 
down, and now only 10 remain in the second largest state in the 
country.
  Another moment will occur when the Supreme Court decides Whole 
Woman's Health v. Cole, which will decide the fate of the remaining 
clinics in Texas and throughout the nation.
  No woman in America should be denied the dignity of being able to 
make choices about her body and healthcare.
  Access to safe, legal and unhindered healthcare must be realized by 
all women.
  A woman's right to choose to have an abortion is a constitutionally 
protected fundamental right.
  More than 40 years ago in the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, 410 
U.S. 113, (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the right to 
privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extends to a 
woman's decision to have an abortion.
  More recently, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), 
the Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade and further explained that states 
could not enact medically unnecessary regulations meant to create 
substantial obstacles for women seeking abortion services.
  Yet, fairness and access to exercise constitutionally protected 
fundamental rights is trampled on and denied to millions of women.
  We cannot ignore the unfairness of imbalanced protection and access 
to fundamentally protected rights for women in America when it is 
easier to purchase and lawfully possess a firearm--even for a person on 
the terrorist watchlist--than it is for a woman to exercise her 
constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.
  Mr. Speaker, this is neither fair nor right and it should not be 
rewarded.
  As our nation continues to push back against horrific acts of 
violence at the hands of dangerous and irresponsible gun owners and gun 
dealers, and our nation's number one provider of women's healthcare 
continues to experience violent and deadly attacks on its personnel and 
facilities, it is time we find common ground.
  A woman's right to choose to have an abortion and an individual's 
right to possess a firearm are both constitutionally protected 
fundamental rights.
  I will be working with my colleagues to find ways to address the 
unfair and unjust disparity by reviewing and responding to unwarranted 
restrictions that result in disparate access to these constitutionally 
protected rights.
  Certainly, if the state has a legitimate interest in requiring a 
woman to wait several days, undergo a physical examination, receive 
counseling and education about alternative options before making the 
decision to terminate a pregnancy, then it has an equally compelling 
interest in requiring a person seeking to obtain a firearm to 
demonstrate the mental, physical, and emotional fitness to possess an 
instrument that is used to kill more than 30,000 Americans annually.
  I hope that one day soon in America it will not be harder for a woman 
to exercise her fundamental right to choose than it is for a person on 
the terrorist watchlist to lawfully purchase and possess firearms.
  At a minimum, I urge the Congress to rededicate itself to the 
critically important but unfinished task of ensuring equality of 
opportunity and protection of law for women.

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