Evergreen Reporter

Washington, D.C. – On June 21, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), led Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms ahead of the June 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped reproductive health care freedom from 22 million women and counting. Afterwards, Senator Murray spoke on the Senate floor about the health care crisis Republicans have created, and how Senate Democrats are standing with Americans across the country to fight back.

“There is just no forgetting the unforgivable pain Republicans’ policies have caused,” Senator Murray said on the Senate floor today after Republicans blocked all four requests for unanimous consent. “There is no forgetting the fear of being pregnant when you don’t want be, or the heartbreak of learning a pregnancy isn’t viable, or the horror of learning it is life-threatening—and knowing you having no control over your body. There is no forgetting the panic of calculating how many thousands of miles you will have to travel to get care, how many days you will have to take off of work, and wondering how you can possibly get the care you need and whether you will face legal action for doing so. There is no forgetting being investigated for having a miscarriage, driving your kid across state lines to get an abortion, hearing your doctor tell you they can’t act to save your life, because they are afraid of going to jail. And people across the country are confronting these painful realities every day.

“Women are heartbroken, and terrified,” Murray continued. “But they are also mad. They are also determined. And they are speaking out. They are not going to settle for a country where they don’t have the fundamental freedom to decide what happens to their bodies, where their daughters and granddaughters have fewer rights than they did just a year ago. And neither am I. We are going to be speaking up, telling our stories, making our voices heard —and Senate Democrats will be fighting to restore the freedoms that Republicans took away.”

The Dobbs decision was the result of a calculated, decades-long effort by Republicans to fill our courts with extreme, anti-abortion judges — and since the decision, 14 states have passed total bans on abortion, another six states have severely limited abortion access, and nine other states have had their abortion bans blocked in court. To mark the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senate Democrats today sought unanimous consent for four common-sense pieces of legislation to protect women’s fundamental freedoms:

• The Right to Contraception Act (S.1999), to enshrine into law the right to use birth control — which is under threat after Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the Supreme Court should reconsider its ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), alongside Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), requested unanimous consent on the legislation; Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) blocked the legislation.

“One year ago, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and far-right Republicans made clear their intention to threaten Americans’ fundamental right to contraception. Today, Senate Republicans stood in the way of our attempt to codify it—but we’re not giving up,” said Senator Edward J. Markey. “I won’t stop fighting until we codify this essential right into law and make sure that everyone has access to the health care they need.”

“Americans want the right and freedom to control their own reproductive health care, without interference from judges or politicians,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin. “In my home state of Wisconsin, where women are already living under an 1849 criminal abortion ban, access to contraception is absolutely essential.”

• The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act (S.2053), which would ensure women can freely travel for health care after Republican state legislatures have banned, and threatened to ban, women’s fundamental right to travel out of state to receive health care, including abortion care. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) requested unanimous consent on the legislation; Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) blocked the legislation.

“We’re seeing far-right extremists actively work to bar women from seeking care in states outside their own,” said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. “That is why my colleagues and I are re-introducing the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. One year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, we need this bill more than ever. Our legislation reaffirms that women have a fundamental right to interstate travel and makes it crystal clear: states cannot prosecute women – or anyone who helps them – for going to another state to get the critical reproductive care they need.”

• The Upholding Protections for Health and Online Location Data (UPHOLD) Privacy Act (S.631), which would protect people’s online health and location data so that it cannot be used against them, including to identify people seeking reproductive health care services. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) requested unanimous consent on the legislation; Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) blocked the legislation.

“Nearly a year ago, the Supreme Court issued a ruling reversing almost five decades of precedent protecting a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar. “Across the country, the American people have come together time and time again to stand up for reproductive rights. And in Congress, we’re continuing our push to pass commonsense bills to protect women’s health, including my bill to stop the use of personal health information for commercial advertising and ban the sale of location data. One thing is clear—we will not settle for a reality in which our daughters have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers.”

• The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act (S.1297), to ensure doctors can continue to safely provide legal abortion care and protect health care providers from being held liable for providing services to patients from other states. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) requested unanimous consent on the legislation; Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) blocked the legislation.

“Last year, the Supreme Court ripped away the fundamental freedom to make our own reproductive health care decisions, putting so many women at risk,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow. “Michiganders made their voices heard, and now this freedom is guaranteed in our state. Congress must make sure this freedom is protected no matter what state you live in.”

“Nearly one year ago, the right-wing activist Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision and signaled to the women across this country that their right to privacy, to healthcare, and to their own autonomy could now be violated,” said Majority Leader Schumer. “MAGA Republicans have made it clear that they will not stop with their vicious anti-choice agenda until there is a nationwide abortion ban. This issue is too pressing to ignore. Senate Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure that the women of this generation will not have less access to contraception and abortions than their parents and grandparents did.”

Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, she has led Congressional efforts to fight back. Murray led her colleagues at the very outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’ continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing now. Murray and 48 of her Democratic colleagues recently reintroduced the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide.

Senator Murray’s remarks as delivered:

Thank you, Madam President. One year ago, Americans lost a constitutional right for the first time in history.

And they didn’t just lose it—Republicans ripped it away.

Just one year now after the Dobbs decision, more than 22 million women have lost their right to an abortion.

No corner of our country has been spared from the fallout.

Abortion providers in states where abortion is legal—like in my home state of Washington—are being overworked, and just totally overwhelmed with patients who have had to wait weeks, and travel hundreds of miles, to get an abortion.

And then there’s the wave of other appalling Republican attacks on abortion: proposals to charge grandmas and older sisters with human trafficking if they drive a minor out of state for an abortion, prosecute abortion providers—doctors—as criminals, ban emergency contraceptives like Plan B, and let’s not forget the partisan lawsuit on mifepristone to rip safe medication abortion off the shelves in all 50 states!

You know, when you listen to patients about what this all means, when you hear the actual stories—the nightmares—that Republicans are putting women in this country through, they are heartbreaking.

Parents driving miles and miles, because their child was raped—their child is pregnant—and abortion is banned in their state. 

Doctors being forced to forgo providing life-saving care—because they fear Republican politicians will put them in jail for doing their jobs.

Women facing miscarriages, left bleeding, unable to get the care they need for days on end.

One woman learned her fetus had no skull, no chance of survival—she still could not get an abortion in her state.

Another woman learned she had an ectopic pregnancy, a serious, life-threatening condition, but she wasn’t able to get an abortion—instead, when she was on death’s door, she had to get a hysterectomy.

Why? Because Republican politicians decided that their views mattered more than her health. Mattered more than her family.

Let’s be clear: the vast, overwhelming majority of Americans stand with women, and support the right to choose abortion.

Every place abortion rights were on the ballot last November—every single place!—abortion rights won.

Still, Republicans are ignoring their constituents and doubling down on their extreme anti-abortion politics.

Just now, when we tried to pass other basic protections—and I mean the simplest, most straightforward protections imaginable—protections that just say, yes, you can travel to another state for an abortion; yes, doctors can provide an abortion in states where it is legal without fear of being thrown into prison; yes, we will protect the right to birth control; yes, we will keep your online health and location data private so it cannot be used against you…

Republicans said no, we’re not going to let you do that.

A senator on the floor earlier even said that the legislation that restrict a woman’s right to travel is really about protecting minors from trafficking.

Seriously? That is outrageous. And I was absolutely—I mean absolutely—outraged to hear him say that.

I hope that the American people understand that what those laws mean. What it means is that a grandmother taking a 17-year-old granddaughter—who was raped or maybe just wants to make her own personal health care decision—to a state where abortion is legal, could be jailed. 

States like Idaho have passed these laws that restrict travel, and what they do is hold young women captive in their own state and threaten anyone who might help them get the care they need with time in prison.

Those kinds of laws and proposals in other states are an appalling attack on the rights of women—and our most basic right as Americans to travel freely within our own country.

I absolutely refuse to let a senator or anyone twist the reality of these truly heinous laws being passed to hold women captive and force them to stay pregnant no matter what.

Republicans have basically adopted two approaches to the health care crisis they caused. One: double down with increasingly extreme, dangerous proposals. Or, two: stick their heads in the sand.

Whether that means pretending this isn’t a problem, pretending it’s not really their fault, or hoping it will fade away.

But Madam President, there is just no forgetting the unforgivable pain Republicans’ policies have caused.

There is no forgetting the fear of being pregnant when you don’t want be, or the heartbreak of learning a pregnancy is not viable, or the horror of learning it is life-threatening—and knowing you have no control over your body.

There is no forgetting the panic of calculating how many thousands of miles you will have to travel to get care, or how many days you will have to take off of work, and wondering how you can possibly get the care you need and whether you will face legal action for doing so.

There is no forgetting being investigated for having a miscarriage, or driving your kid across state lines to get an abortion, or hearing your doctor tell you they cannot act to save your life because they are afraid of going to jail.

And people across this country are confronting those realities every single day.

Women are heartbroken, and terrified.

But, Madam President. They are also mad.

They are determined. And they’re speaking out.

They are not going to settle for a country where they don’t have the fundamental freedom to decide what happens to their own bodies, where their daughters and granddaughters have fewer rights than they did just a few years ago.

And neither am I.

We, on the Democratic side, are going to stand up, tell our stories, and we’re going to make your voices heard.

And we’re going to fight—here on this side—to restore the freedoms that Republicans took away.

Original source can be found here.