43rd Anniversary of Roe V. Wade Decision

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I come to the floor on two issues of great importance to our Nation, both involving the rights and opportunities of individuals to live in the greatest, strongest Nation in the history of the world, with the tremendous opportunity to fulfill their dreams and their rights--rights to enhance themselves and rights of privacy.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. As I recall well from my days as a law clerk to Justice Blackmun in the term following Roe v. Wade, that was a bitterly controversial decision, but it was one that we thought at the time would assure every woman of her constitutional right to make her own decision about whether and when to have a child, based on the fundamental right of privacy that decision enshrined and expressed and protected.

Unfortunately, those great hopes have been dashed. Over the last four decades, this constitutional right to reproductive care has been under attack throughout this country. Rather than advancing the health and well-being of women, legislators in a lot of States, and even in the Federal Government, have put themselves squarely between women and their health care providers, denying that fundamental right of choice that Roe v. Wade guaranteed.

That practical reality means that Roe v. Wade has been far less effective than it could and should have been, because those opponents have advocated and implemented dangerous laws that undermine and violate a woman's right to privacy and diminish her access to constitutionally guaranteed reproductive health care services. These restrictions fall disproportionately on minorities and many who live in rural or medically underserved areas. I have great respect for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but we are jeopardizing the health care necessary for millions and millions of women and their right to privacy in this great country.

I have introduced a measure that would help prevent these violations of rights at the State level. The Women's Health Protection Act would invalidate not only extreme laws such as the Texas law that is now before the U.S. Supreme Court but dozens of other restrictive legislative steps that States have implemented and introduced to block women from accessing safe and legal health care.

I am happy to celebrate this anniversary of Roe v. Wade, but I think it is a moment to rededicate ourselves to the continuing task, more urgent and difficult than ever, to enable every woman to have the right of privacy, the right to make decisions about her own body, about whether and when to have children, and that fundamental right can help make abortion safe, legal, and rare.

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