Women's Healthcare

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am really disappointed to feel like I need to come to the floor today to respond to these anti-women, anti- family bills that have been introduced. Not only would these bills interfere with a woman's ability to make her own reproductive choices, they would threaten doctors with prison time if they perform abortion services that women have a constitutional right to receive.

These bills are dangerous, extreme, and they are part of an ongoing effort by this administration to overturn Roe v. Wade. We don't need this legislation to prevent the killing of infants.

Let's be very clear. Infanticide is already illegal under Federal law. In fact, prosecutions have occurred under the current law that prevents infanticide. This legislation would do nothing but set up ambiguous standards for cases that are often medical emergencies and add uncertainty to laws that are already on the books to prohibit infanticide.

This uncertainty will have a chilling effect on the ability of women to access the services they need in the United States. The legislation we are voting on would also imprison doctors for up to 5 years for performing abortions after a woman is 20 weeks pregnant, even though-- even though Federal courts have ruled that this 20-week abortion ban, as is proposed under one of these bills, would violate the Constitution.

The 20-week abortion ban bill would only allow for exceptions for minors who are victims of rape or incest if those young women report that rape or incest to the police. For adult women, the rape exception would only apply if she waits 48 hours and gets counseling from a healthcare provider that her government--not that she or her family but the government--determines is acceptable.

These exceptions are just shameful because my colleagues know, as I do, that almost three-quarters of rape and sexual assaults are never reported, often because women have legitimate fears of being victimized again. They fear the rapist or the person who has assaulted them.

More broadly, it is really this simple: We should not be putting doctors in prison for providing a woman with the reproductive care she chooses. We must always remember that abortions that are performed later in pregnancy are almost always done as a result of severe fetal diagnoses and the serious risk that the pregnancy poses to the life of the woman.

This isn't a decision that any woman or family wants to be in a position to make. It is tragic, and it is heartbreaking. The fact that these bills would demean the women who have to make these decisions by suggesting that this is something that government should decide for them instead of the woman with her family and with her doctor is nothing but tragic. I don't understand how people can think the government is better positioned to make these personal decisions than women and families and their doctors.

Protecting pregnant women, new mothers, and children is about more than scoring political points with anti-choice legislation. It is about ensuring that women have access to maternity care. That means prenatal care. It means having access to affordable healthcare coverage. That is why this legislation rings so hollow. People who are speaking on the floor who are supporting these bills are not talking about improving the lives of women and children.

Right now, this administration is in court, backing a lawsuit that would tear down the Affordable Care Act despite the fact that there is no alternative if the ACA is struck down. If the administration and States succeed in striking down the Affordable Care Act, we are going to go back to the days when insurance companies can exclude maternity care from coverage and when women can be charged higher premiums than men. If they succeed, the Medicaid expansion would be gone, and States would have fewer dollars to cover more people at a time when 43 percent of childbirths in this country are covered and paid for by Medicaid.

These are the fundamental issues that are at stake for women and families across this country. Given these stakes, I am disappointed that here we are again, debating two anti-choice bills that the Senate already rejected in 2018 and 2019. Nothing has changed since then. This is time that is being used, as the Senator from Washington said, just to try and stir up the base of some of the Senators who are in this Chamber.

If my colleagues were serious about protecting mothers and children, they would join in supporting efforts to ensure that the healthcare coverage that families rely on isn't ripped away in court. I urge my colleagues to oppose these bills and to vote no when they are considered on the floor.

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