Abortion

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I rise to speak about the recent uptick in State efforts to criminalize abortion. These proposals, which have been passed in eight States just this year and that have been proposed in many others, impose harsh criminal penalties on women who have abortions or on doctors who terminate pregnancies.

The laws deny women the freedom to make their own healthcare choices. Therefore, they clearly violate the constitutional protections established in Roe v. Wade and subsequent cases. In fact, many of the proponents of these laws openly advertise them as being part of a strategy to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and to return to the days when States used the criminal law to punish women and doctors for contraception and abortion.

Abortion is a contentious issue. People feel so strongly about it. I understand that. I feel strongly about it, too. It can sometimes appear that there is little common ground between people who call themselves pro-choice and people who call themselves pro-life, but there is common ground among so many of us. For example, Americans with many different views on abortion overwhelmingly believe that Roe v. Wade should remain the law of the land. More than 70 percent of Americans support the decision and believe it shouldn't be overturned.

People understand that, whatever they think about abortion for themselves and their own families, they do not believe the State should make the decision for every woman. Women should be able to make their own decisions about pregnancy, contraception, and abortion without State interference, and appropriate regulation of abortion, just as of other medical procedures, especially late in a pregnancy when a fetus could survive independently, is allowable as long as the life and health of the mother receive careful protection.

In addition to the support for Roe v. Wade, there is also common ground based on data about strategies that work, and I want to offer a common-ground perspective on this issue. There is a way to dramatically reduce abortion in this country that both pro-life and pro-choice should embrace. It is a strategy of compassion. Let me start with a noteworthy fact that is almost never mentioned.

During the last 25 years, which is the time I have been in elected office, the abortion rate in this country has been cut in half. This is remarkable. You never hear this discussed. By 2015, during the Obama administration, the abortion rate in the United States was at its lowest level since Roe v. Wade became law. In fact, if you were to just measure it by the data, you could argue that the Obama administration's years were the most pro-life period since Roe v. Wade.

Why has this happened?

While there are a number of reasons, the most important one is this: The rate of unplanned pregnancies is decreasing. Teen pregnancies are decreasing. If the number of unplanned pregnancies goes down, the abortion rate goes down. There is a direct connection between unplanned pregnancies and the abortion rate.

So here is the strategy that should unite everyone: Reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies. Could anyone be against that? Reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies.

The good news is that we know how to do it. When women have better access to affordable healthcare, including better access to contraception and better access to comprehensive sex education, the number of unplanned pregnancies goes down, and the number of abortions drops. We know that more women have access to healthcare and contraception today than in the past. The passage of the Affordable Care Act and the 36 States that have expanded Medicaid have provided millions of women with healthcare, so many of whom didn't have it before, including preventive care and contraception access.

Comprehensive sex education for young people also equips them with information that is necessary to avoid unplanned pregnancies. Some young people decide to delay becoming sexually active, and that is great. Some make better choices about contraception to avoid pregnancy, and that is helpful. So education is a key factor as well. Whatever we call ourselves--pro-choice, pro-life, or anything--if we want to keep reducing unplanned pregnancies and, thereby, reducing the abortion rate, guess what. We know just how to do it: Make sure kids get comprehensive sex education so they can make more responsible choices, and keep working to expand healthcare, including access to contraception for women. This is the compassionate way to bring down the abortion rate. It supports women, trusts their decisions, and succeeds in reducing unplanned pregnancies.

Yet here is something that puzzles me. The GOP legislators all across this country have generally opposed, quite bitterly, those proven strategies, and so have many in the pro-life community. The GOP has fought the Affordable Care Act every step of the way, and it now stands squarely behind the effort to repeal the act entirely and strip healthcare away from millions of women.

The GOP fights against contraception access. Many in the GOP fight against comprehensive sex education. Instead, they push abstinence-only sex education curricula that doesn't work. If the GOP succeeds in killing the ACA and in reducing contraception access, the number of unplanned pregnancies will increase, and the abortion rate will increase. How is that pro-life?

The GOP is now embracing a different strategy--making women and doctors criminals. This is the key unifying cruelty to these recent State laws. GOP-controlled States are racing to see who can have the cruelest criminal laws--a complete ban on abortion at 8 weeks of pregnancy. No, how about a complete ban on abortion at 6 weeks of pregnancy?

In Alabama, there is a ban from the second the pregnancy begins, from the second there is a fetus in utero, and there are no exceptions to someone who is the victim of rape or incest. Think about that. Alabama forces a 13-year-old who was raped or was the victim of incest to bear a criminal's child under pain of criminal prosecution and punishment-- imprisonment--for the doctor.

Wait. Let's get tougher still.

In Georgia, women who terminate pregnancies could receive life in prison under a bill that was recently signed by the Georgia Governor. There is some confusion here. Prosecutors argue about whether the technical language would subject a woman who has an abortion to a first-degree murder charge. The sponsor of the bill, now that it has been signed, is backpedaling, saying he only intended for women to be prosecuted under a separate criminal abortion statute that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. He apparently believes that subjecting women to 10-year prison sentences rather than to life sentences for murder is merciful and lenient. No woman exercising her constitutional right to make her own healthcare decisions should be threatened with a prison sentence of even 1 day.

The GOP could go further.

A Texas bill filed last month would have allowed the death penalty-- capital punishment--for a woman who seeks an abortion. The bill failed, but the bill wasn't a surprise from the party whose President admitted during his campaign that a woman who has an abortion must suffer a punishment.

So the GOP's strategy is for more criminal laws, more prosecutions, and more sentences--put more women in prison, and put more doctors in prison. We already have the highest incarceration in the world--five times higher than Canada's and 70 percent higher than Russia's. Guess what. So many of these GOP proposals would push us even further, and the next big group going behind bars could be women and doctors.

These criminal laws don't bring about a culture of life. These criminal laws don't bring about a culture of compassion. They succeed only in demonizing women, robbing them of their dignity, and intruding upon the most private aspects of their lives, and they demonize the doctors who care for these women.

Do Americans want a society that labels women's healthcare choices as criminal? No.

Is there any proof that criminal penalties for abortion will reduce unplanned pregnancies? No.

Is there any proof that criminal penalties for abortion will reduce the number of abortions? No.

That is what I mean about the choice we face as a society. We can pursue a path of compassion toward women and be secure in the knowledge that better health and contraception access and comprehensive sex education will reduce unplanned pregnancies and abortions, or we can pursue the path of criminalizing women's decisions with there being no evidence that the strategy will have the effect of reducing unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

I have focused most of my attention on the issue of unplanned pregnancies. Of course, some planned pregnancies end in abortion, too. Most often, these pregnancies involve severe maternal or severe fetal health issues that are emotional and tragic for all involved. Certainly, compassion toward these families and not criminal prosecution is the right answer. This question--do we use a compassionate strategy to reduce unplanned pregnancies or do we criminalize women's decisions?--is the fundamental difference between the Nation's two political parties on this very important issue right now.

I am firmly in the camp of compassion. If we support women and trust women, we can keep making significant progress toward a goal we should all share: fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions.

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