Women's Healthcare

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it must be a day that ends in ``Y'' because, once again, Republican Senators are pushing for backward, ideological bills to restrict a women's constitutional right to abortion. Once again, Republicans are peddling a ban that is blatantly unconstitutional. Once again, they are pretending we don't already have laws on the books that protect infants and are using that as a pretext to drum up fear and misunderstanding about one of the most heartbreaking situations a family can face, and are pushing for anti- doctor, anti-women, anti-family legislation.

Once again, I am here on behalf of women and men across the country to deliver the same message we have already made clear countless times: not on our watch. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he wants to pivot to legislating, which makes these two atrocious bills an interesting choice because all 100 Senators know they are going absolutely nowhere. The truth is, Republicans' charade today is not actually about passing laws any more than it is about people's health or medical science or what is best for patients. It is really about Republicans' crass political calculation that they can fire up their far-right base with an all-out war against the constitutionally protected right to safe, legal abortion.

The two bills differ in some significant ways, but they have the same consequences. They would criminalize--criminalize--abortion, take deeply personal, often painful decisions out of the hands of parents and use scare tactics and misinformation to try to weaken strong public support for Roe.

Another thing they have in common? They have already been panned by leading medical groups. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has called one of these bills ``an unconstitutional attempt to intimidate health care providers and prevent them from providing the safe care their patients want and need.'' And they have said the other is ``a gross legislative interference into the practice of medicine.''

It is not just medical experts. Families across the country have actually faced these decisions, have spoken out to make clear politicians should have no part in them. Pressing for these awful bills year after year may be nothing more than a cynical political tactic for Republicans, but passing them would be an unconscionable exercise in cruelty to the people who would actually be affected:

People like Judy, who is from my home State of Washington. Judy learned over 20 weeks into her pregnancy that her son's organs were not developing properly. One lung was 20 percent formed. The other was missing entirely.

People like Kate, whose doctor informed her that if her daughter survived birth, she would not be able to walk, talk, or swallow and likely would not even be comfortable enough to sleep.

People like Lindsay, who learned her daughter had a fast-growing, inoperable tumor growing into her brain and heart and lungs, wrapping around her neck and eyes and chest, and making her odds of survival incredibly slim.

People like Darla, who was pregnant with twins when she got the unthinkable news that one of her twins had serious medical complications. Not terminating that pregnancy could put her other twin's healthcare at risk.

Those are just a few of many stories. There are more families across the country who have struggled with the painful reality that the child they have hoped for cannot survive. Each of them has spoken out to underscore that in those wrenching moments, they wanted to make the decision that was best for their child and their family, with their healthcare provider. But each of these bills would take the ability to make the decision best for that child and family away from women like Judy, Kate, Lindsay, and Darla. Those bills would prevent doctors from offering the best medical advice, all because extreme politicians are more concerned with spreading misinformation and firing up their base than they are with actual women's lives. In other words, in the most private moments of personal tragedy, these bills would take precedence over a family's wishes as they grieve.

To the politicians supporting these bills, I have to ask: How dare you think your opinion is more important here than the knowledge of medical experts and the wishes of the family who is affected?

I don't understand how anyone can think, instead of letting patients make their own very personal decisions, that they should have that decision made for them by President Trump and Vice President Pence. That is exactly what we are talking about today. Why? Even though Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for almost a half a century, even though a large majority of people do not want to see that landmark decision overturned, Republicans think somehow they can benefit politically and fire up the most ideological elements of their base by using every tool imaginable to chip away at the right to safe--safe-- legal abortion.

I am here to say they can try, but women, medical experts, and those of us elected officials who trust them are not going to stop calling these bills what they are: anti-women, anti-doctor, and anti-family. We are going to make clear we oppose every single one of their efforts to further chip away at access to safe, legal abortion under Roe: every extreme, cruel abortion ban, every fearmongering effort to gin up controversy and pretend we don't already protect infants, every far- right judge they try to pack onto the courts to chip away at Roe v. Wade, every barrier to care and information like President Trump's title X gag rule, and every new shameful scheme they concoct in their all-out war on access to reproductive healthcare.

Whatever Republicans try next, Democrats are going to continue fighting alongside women and men across the country to protect their ability to make their own decisions about their own families, continue standing up for doctors' ability to practice medicine without politicians getting in the way, and lifting up the stories of real people, like Judy and Kate and Lindsey, Darla, and many others--so Republicans can't ignore them.

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