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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this weekend is the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. It is a decision that, without a doubt, changed lives for the better. It prevented a lot of harm and helped keep many patients healthy. It opened doors for women to pursue their career and education goals and affirmed the right to control our own bodies and our own futures.

Roe was a giant leap forward, and a majority of Americans want to protect it. But since Roe was decided, extreme Republicans have peddled blatant misinformation, filled our judicial system with anti-abortion judges, and passed State laws designed solely to make it harder to get abortions--laws that are now hurting people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, young people, people with low incomes, and people with disabilities the most. And they are not stopping at abortion. They are pushing to make it harder to get birth control and defund family planning clinics--including Planned Parenthood--which provide critical healthcare for so many communities.

In Texas, Republicans have passed, and the Supreme Court green-lit, a law that essentially bans abortions and is enforced by pitting neighbor against neighbor. And even though medication abortion pills are safe to take at home, extreme Republicans are now pushing to pass laws that not only dictate what happens in a doctor's office but also make it harder for patients to take a pill in their very own living room.

You know, Republicans do like to talk about Big Government, but overriding people's individual decisions and science to dictate what people can do in their own homes sounds like a lot of overreach.

The Senator from Oklahoma is here with a bill today that has one goal: to make it harder to get abortion care by allowing someone else's personal beliefs, rather than a patient's best interest, to determine a patient's care. And that is just one example of the extreme agenda Republicans are pushing, today and every day.

I have heard from so many people about the problems and the harm this has caused in their lives. I have heard from many patients who had to jump through unnecessary or even harmful hoops to get the abortion care they needed: patients who had to endure invasive ultrasounds that were medically unnecessary before they could get an abortion; patients who were harassed going in and out of a clinic; patients who had to drive hours or even days to get to the nearest abortion provider or who zeroed out their bank account to afford a plane ticket or childcare; patients, including many in Texas, who didn't have the means to get the abortion care they needed and were forced to stay pregnant when they did not want to be.

And then the Supreme Court took on a direct challenge to Roe that threatens the constitutional right to abortion. I have heard nonstop from people who are very anxious about their future, people who are scared and frustrated, people who, like the majority of Americans, want to protect Roe, who want to live in a country where everyone can make their own decisions about pregnancy and parenting--free from political interference.

That is exactly why I am fighting so hard to protect the right to abortion at the Federal level by passing the Women's Health Protection Act. That bill will safeguard Roe and help make its promises a reality for everyone, no matter their ZIP Code, by ensuring their constitutional right to abortion is not undermined by State abortion bans and restrictions.

But Republican attacks from every angle, like the one we will witness now, means there is no one easy fix.

We have got to do everything we can to undo the damage the extreme Republicans have caused in our laws and in our lives. And that is why I am fighting so hard for the over-the-counter birth control and to make health insurance companies follow the law rather than forcing patients to pay out of pocket for contraception.

It is why I am fighting to make a historic investment in title X family planning centers, which help make healthcare like birth control, STI screenings, and more available to everyone, regardless of their income.

And it is why I am asking for everyone to join me in this fight. It is going to take all of us working together to protect reproductive rights, and there is no action too small.

Share your story. Speak up about what reproductive rights mean to you. Support a local organization helping to get patients the reproductive healthcare they need. Work to combat Republicans' misinformation. Fight to pass local and State laws protecting abortion rights.

And here is something to remember while you do it: It is true that extreme Republicans have worked nonstop to roll back progress on reproductive rights and that abortion access is at risk like never before.

But this is also true: Since Roe, millions and millions of American women and men grew up knowing access to abortion is a constitutional right. Millions and millions more saw how much Roe opened doors for women and empowered people to make their own personal decisions about their body and their future.

The vast majority of Americans believe people should be trusted to make their own decisions about whether or not to get an abortion and that whether and when to get pregnant is a personal decision, not a decision that should be made by any politician or taken away from them because of how much money they have or where they live.

We can make this a reality, but we have got to fight for it. That is what I am doing; that is what I am going to keep doing; and I am very glad to have so many people alongside.
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