Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022
Floor Speech
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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his extraordinary leadership on this subject not only as we face the Court decision but, over time, his chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee in terms of health in general, women's health in particular, reproductive health as we gather today. I thank members of the committee, and I thank the authors of this legislation as I proceed.
I rise on this momentous day as our pro-choice, pro-women Democratic majority proudly takes further action to defend the fundamental right of health freedom.
As extremist Republicans continue their assault on reproductive rights, our Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act will ensure that the fundamental right to travel and obtain needed healthcare remains in the hands of the American people.
Our Women's Health Protection Act will once again make the protections of Roe v. Wade the law of the land.
Let us salute the patriotic and persistent leadership not only of our distinguished chairman, Mr. Pallone, but also Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher and Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland, who are leading the charge on the right-to-travel bill, working with Jamie Raskin, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee and who has been part of this.
I also salute Congresswoman Judy Chu, who will have now twice secured House passage of the Women's Health Protection Act; Pro-Choice Caucus co-chairs Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee; and Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone.
Three weeks ago, the Republican Party finally achieved its dark, dangerous, long-held goal to rip away a woman's freedom over her most fundamental decisions about her body, her health, and her life.
Since the Republican-captured Supreme Court eviscerated Roe v. Wade, at least nine Republican-controlled States have already banned abortion. More have enacted draconian restrictions so that exercising this fundamental right is practically impossible.
In doing so, these extreme measures have forced countless women to seek reproductive care in nearby States. But now, Republican lawmakers across the country are advancing proposals to block women from crossing State lines to get the care they need and punish those who, in their words, ``aid or abet'' them.
Is this the United States of America, where Republicans in these States can say to women, ``You cannot cross State lines for your own good health?''
This has been especially devastating for women who do not have the means to access care, often women of color and women from low-income communities.
This reality is sickening. It is despicable. It demands action.
With our Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, we will prevent Republicans from punishing women for exercising their right to travel and receive the healthcare they need, and it will protect healthcare providers who deliver reproductive services and all those who help women make the journey to receive those services. This means no criminal charges, no lawsuits, no fees or fines, no threats of retaliation.
Importantly, this legislation also reaffirms the right to travel, a freedom we often take for granted but is fundamental to liberty and privacy.
Republicans supposedly once stood for these values, but today, they are seeking to restrict where you can go and who you can see and to stand between you, your family, your doctor, and your God in making intimate health decisions.
This is not only anti-women; it is anti-American. House Democrats are fighting back.
Madam Speaker, today, our majority will also pass the Women's Health Protection Act, which protects the right to an abortion found in Roe v. Wade, ensuring the Federal right of healthcare providers to provide reproductive care and the Federal right for patients to receive that care.
By passing this legislation, we will preempt and prevent State-level bans and restrictions put forth by extremist, anti-women State legislators.
We will ensure that all Americans enjoy the same fundamental rights to reproductive care--regardless of background or ZIP Code.
We offer help to the American people who treasure our freedoms and who are overwhelmingly with us in our mission to defend them.
What do Republicans have in store next?
You can't travel to buy a book?
You can't travel to see a concert or a play--if it doesn't meet their, shall we say--I wouldn't use the word standards--their what?
Today, we must pass this legislation for a second time. We first passed this bill last September after Texas severely restricted the ability of women to access reproductive care with SB8, an outrageous bounty hunter bill. We do so again today, in the wake of the outrageous Supreme Court ruling that erased the vital protections of Roe v. Wade.
The Court's disgraceful decision has already unleashed catastrophe: women denied care after experiencing the heartbreak of miscarriage; survivors of sexual assault facing the possibility of forced birth; doctors under threat of persecution for offering reproductive services.
Many of these situations are well-known and are publicized--they are in the public domain. There are many more than are just in the public domain. Make no mistake, eviscerating the protections of Roe was only the opening act of the cruel Republican crusade to criminalize women.
In recent days, we have heard again of the tragic story of a young girl who was a survivor of sexual assault and had to travel to a neighboring State to receive the reproductive healthcare she needed. Now, the State attorney general--a Republican who served here in the House--is now investigating the doctor who legally provided her services. She is 10 years old. This move is intended to intimidate healthcare providers and produce a chilling effect on access to reproductive care.
The Republican agenda is not just a threat to families in red States. House Republicans' overwhelming opposition to our legislation make clear that they do not want anyone to access reproductive care anywhere. Indeed, their endgame is a barbaric ban on abortion in all 50 States.
As the Associate Justice Clarence Thomas said, they have only just begun in terms of their restrictions in terms of contraception and the rest. They will not stop there. These extremists are even threatening to criminalize birth control, in vitro fertilization, and post- miscarriage care.
Democrats will never stop fighting back against this extreme assault because we know that every woman everywhere has the basic right to reproductive healthcare.
Right now, the rights of women and every American are on the line, Madam Speaker.
House Democrats are ferociously defending freedom with these two important bills. We need two more Democratic pro-choice Senators so that we can eliminate the filibuster and make this legislation the law of the land.
Madam Speaker, as the radical Republican Party seeks to wind back the clock of 50 years of hard-fought progress, I am reminded of an extemporaneous debate in which I participated as a high school student.
A young woman, a friend of mine, drew a question from a bowl on a slip of paper that read: Do women think?
Today, it seems that some wish to debate that same question: the extremist Republican assault on women's rights harkens back to this darker time.
Do women think?
Indeed, because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and a radical rightwing Republican Party, and their supermajority in the Supreme Court, right now American women have less freedom than their mothers.
By passing this legislation, the Democratic House is standing on the side of freedom for women and for every American.
The young lady who drew the insulting question answered that question with grace and strength, and she won the debate.
Just as Democrats intend to win on the question of women's health and freedom, not only here in the Halls of Congress, but with the American people in November.
Madam Speaker, I urge a very strong vote for the Women's Health Protection Act and the Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act. I hope we have a strong vote and I hope a bipartisan vote.
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