[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1122-1124]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    44TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my neighbor from 
Vermont, Senator Patrick Leahy. We also had a very inspiring march in 
the capital of New Hampshire on Saturday that Senator Hassan and I both 
attended. But I am not here to talk about that so much as about the 
44th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. That anniversary happened 
this past Sunday. That ruling affirmed the constitutional right of 
women to control our own reproductive choices. It made birth control 
safer and more accessible for women across this country.
  On Saturday, as Senator Leahy said so eloquently, we saw millions of 
women and men come together in Washington and Concord, NH, and other 
cities across New Hampshire and across the United States and all across 
the globe. There were events in all 50 States and in 32 countries. We 
came together to defend this constitutional right, as well as other 
critical gains for women in recent years. Our message, expressed 
peacefully and powerfully, was that we will not allow these gains to be 
taken away. We will not be dragged backward.
  Despite the progress since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, women's 
reproductive health care remains under constant assault. States have 
passed restrictions intended to shut down clinics and limit access. 
Sadly, Republican leadership here in Congress has repeatedly attempted 
to defund Planned Parenthood, which is one of this Nation's leading 
providers of high-quality, affordable health care for women, and over 
95 percent of the work that is done by Planned Parenthood is done to 
provide preventive services and health care to women, such as 
mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and other important preventive 
care.
  Unfortunately, the Trump administration and Republican leaders here 
in Congress have exhibited a dangerous obsession with rolling back 
women's reproductive rights. President Trump has promised to nominate 
Supreme Court Justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. It is 
interesting--he has talked about court decisions around LGBT rights as 
being settled law, and yet we have the Roe v. Wade decision, which is 
44 years old, and for some reason he doesn't include that as settled 
law.
  Just yesterday, in one of his first official acts, the President 
signed an Executive order reinstating the global gag rule, also known 
as the Mexico City policy that began with Ronald Reagan's Executive 
order. That Executive order prohibits U.S. financial aid to many 
international organizations that offer contraception and comprehensive 
family planning services to women. But what we have seen with this 
Executive order that President Trump signed is a broad expansion of 
that Mexico City policy.
  The new Trump administration has joined with Republican leaders in 
Congress in pledging a much broader assault on women's rights and the 
gains women have made in recent years. In addition to terminating 
funding for Planned Parenthood, which more than 12,000 Granite Staters 
depend on for quality, affordable health care, they have promised to 
repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would have profoundly negative 
consequences for women's health. The repeal would end

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ObamaCare's ban on discrimination against women in health insurance. 
Depending on how the law is crafted, it would allow insurers to once 
again classify pregnancy as a preexisting condition and to deny many 
women coverage; it would allow insurers to charge women more simply 
because we are women; it would reverse women's access to contraception 
without cost-sharing; and it would end access to preventive health 
services, such as mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, without 
cost-sharing--all very significant benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
  Last week, we also saw reports that at the Justice Department, the 
Trump administration plans to eliminate the Office on Violence Against 
Women, including all 25 grant programs that have been working to 
prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of violence 
against women for more than two decades--this at a time when one in 
five women in this country still reports being the victim of a 
completed or attempted rape.
  Taken together, these actions amount to more than a dangerous 
obsession with throwing back women's reproductive rights, they amount 
to an assault on the safety and well-being of women and girls in the 
United States and across the globe. This is exactly what millions of 
women and men were protesting on Saturday.
  Sadly, people are not just concerned, they are frightened, and 
unfortunately with very good reason.
  As those of us who gathered and marched on Saturday made very clear, 
we are not going to stand still for this assault on our rights and 
gains. We are not going to be taken backward. This week, I am 
introducing bipartisan legislation to permanently repeal the global gag 
rule, with Senator Collins. This rule bans Federal funds for 
nongovernmental organizations that provide abortion services or 
information about abortion as part of comprehensive family planning 
services.
  As I said earlier, the Trump administration's reinstatement of the 
global gag rule is even more extreme and harmful than it has been in 
previous Republican administrations. Previously, under President Reagan 
and the Bush administration, this policy applied only to family 
planning funding, but under President Trump's order, it applies to 
every program that falls under global health assistance. This means 
that it puts at risk 15 times more funding and millions more women and 
families. This targets some of the most effective health organizations 
that work in the developing world--organizations that are doing great 
work to provide HIV services and maternal health care and to counsel 
women on the risks of the Zika infection--and it ignores decades of 
research. We know that when family planning services and contraceptives 
are accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, fewer maternal 
deaths and child deaths, and fewer abortions. So if you want to prevent 
abortion--something I think we all agree on--then why not give women 
and their families access to family planning services? I don't think we 
can allow extreme ideology to triumph over the urgent practical needs 
of women and families across the world.
  The facts make clear that when family planning services are 
accessible and contraceptives are affordable, rates of unplanned 
pregnancies and abortions go down. Here in the United States, the 
abortion rate has dropped to the lowest level since 1943--a success 
that is directly attributed to reduced cost-sharing for contraception 
under the Affordable Care Act. And what do we have? We have the 
leadership and Congress trying to reverse that assistance to women and 
families.
  In recent days, we have been presented with a fateful choice. We can 
stand aside and allow the Trump administration to lead an across-the-
board assault on women's rights--on women's access to health care, on 
programs that protect women from sexual assault and other forms of 
violence--or we can come together on a bipartisan basis to protect the 
important gains women have made in recent years and decades.
  Back in the early 1980s, I chaired a committee in New Hampshire that 
was working on women's employment in the State. One of the conclusions 
we came to was when women are supported, their families are supported. 
So this is not just about women in this country; this is about 
families. It is about women and their children and their husbands and 
their brothers and their fathers and their mothers. This is about what 
is in the best interests of the American people.
  Millions of Americans joined together on Saturday, peacefully and 
passionately, to urge Congress to make the right choice, to protect 
women's constitutional rights, to protect our access to health care. I 
urge my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle to listen to those 
voices, and I urge my colleagues to join with me in ending the global 
gag rule once and for all.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, this past Sunday was the 44th 
anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I wish to take a moment to reflect on how 
far we have come since the Supreme Court decision.
  Because of Roe v. Wade, American women for the last 44 years have had 
the right, the freedom, the privacy to make their own decisions about 
their own bodies with their doctors and with their families, without 
the Federal Government barging its way into the conversation and 
telling them what they can or can't do with their own bodies.
  Roe v. Wade was one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in 
the history of women's rights in this Nation, but it was only a start. 
In the 44 years since, we have made so much progress with women's 
health, and much of that progress has to do with what we accomplished 
in the Affordable Care Act.
  Millions of American women now have access to health care coverage 
that used to be extremely difficult and expensive for a lot of women to 
get. Millions of American women now have access to affordable 
preventive health care services, including contraception, birth 
control, STD screenings, mammograms, breastfeeding support and 
supplies, and cervical cancer screenings, and since the Affordable Care 
Act was passed, the number of unwanted pregnancies has gone down, in 
part, because more women have access to affordable contraception.
  There is no doubt that American women have better access to safe and 
affordable health care because of Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care 
Act, but some of my colleagues are committed to turning back the clock 
on women's health and taking away women's access to this lifesaving 
care. They are doing everything in their power to get rid of the 
Affordable Care Act, and they are determined to see Roe v. Wade get 
overturned.
  One of President Trump's first Executive orders was so extreme that 
it would take away funding for any international organizations that 
even talk about whether a woman might want to terminate a pregnancy. We 
should never let this happen. If we take away women's access to the 
health care they need, it would be devastating--even life-threatening--
for millions of American women.
  This weekend, a massive group of women and men and children joined 
together in women's marches across the globe. They were there to speak 
out, to be heard, to protest some of these issues that would deeply 
affect American families and women in particular. I was so proud to 
march with them. I was inspired by them--their passion, their 
determination, and their commitment to never give up.
  The women's marches were truly the biggest outpouring of support and 
activism I have seen in my lifetime and certainly that we have seen in 
this generation. They were loud and clear statements that we will not 
let the government dictate to us how we should manage these most 
personal decisions--when you are going to have a family, how big your 
family is going to be. Those are decisions that are made by husbands 
and wives, by spouses all

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across this country about what their family is going to look like.
  I urge all of my colleagues in this Chamber to listen to the millions 
of Americans, the millions of women who would like to make those 
decisions themselves, who would like to choose their health care, who 
would not like to be charged more just because they are women, who 
would not like to see their health care coverage dropped the minute 
they become pregnant, who would not like to be told: You have a 
preexisting condition and we will not cover you. That is what we go 
back to.
  We have to fight for the Affordable Care Act, and we have to make 
sure the Supreme Court does not overturn Roe v. Wade. Listen to your 
constituents. These marches weren't just in New York; they were in 
every State across the country. These marches were real, they were 
powerful, they were determined, and these men and women want to be 
heard.
  Members of Congress, I hope you are listening to them. That is our 
job, to represent our country. Their voices must be heard. We shall not 
ignore them.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

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