Women's Health Protection Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, the recently leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization signals what many of us have feared would happen: At least five rightwing Supreme Court Justices seem poised to overturn Roe v. Wade and abolish the constitutional right of women to have an abortion.
In my view, the U.S. Senate cannot and must not allow that to happen. We cannot go back to the days when women had to risk their lives to end an unwanted pregnancy. We cannot go back to the days of back alley abortions. We cannot go back to the days of forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy or go through a childbirth that could cause her illness or death. That, we cannot go back to.
In America today, it is estimated that one out of every four women will choose to have an abortion by the time she turns 45. In 2019, over 625,000 women in America chose to have an abortion. While no one can say with any degree of certainty how many deaths there will be if abortion is made illegal and women are forced to carry unsafe pregnancies to term, there is no doubt that, over a period of time, many thousands of American women will die.
Now, I get very tired of hearing the hypocrisy from the extreme rightwing, who say to ``get the government off our backs.'' How often have we heard that--``get the government off our backs; we want small government''?
Well, I say to those rightwingers: If you want to get the government off the backs of the American people, then understand that it is women who control their own bodies, not politicians.
During the COVID crisis, how many times had we heard on this floor and throughout this country the extreme rightwing say: The government must not force us to wear a mask. How dare the government do that. Government must not force us to have a vaccine. We have the right to do what we want with our bodies?
Well, hypocritically, these very same rightwing politicians who worry so much about their masks and vaccines now want the Federal Government, the State governments, and their own local governments to mandate what women cannot and can do with their bodies. How hypocritical can you be?
The decision about an abortion must be a decision for the woman and her doctor to make, not the government. That is why I rise this evening in strong support of the Women's Health Protection Act.
This legislation would make Roe v. Wade the law of the land. This legislation would begin to put an end to the relentless assault on the reproductive rights of women that is taking place all across this country.
But let me be as clear as I can be: It is not good enough to just talk about passing this bill. If there are not 60 votes in the Senate to pass this legislation--and there are not--we must end the filibuster and pass it with 50 votes.
You know, I hear a lot of talk from my Democratic colleagues about the need for unity. Well, if there were ever a time for unity, now is that time.
According to poll after poll, year after year, 60 percent of the American people believe that Roe v. Wade should be upheld. Moreover, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC poll, 75 percent of Americans say decisions on abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor, including 95 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of Independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.
In other words, if the U.S. Senate were truly a representative body of the American people--which for a variety of reasons, clearly, it is not--we would easily have 60 votes to pass this bill, and women would be protected.
It is important for us to remember how we got to where we are today.
Five years ago, Senator Mitch McConnell--the Republican leader--and the Republican Party in the Senate ended the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in order to do what they could not do legislatively, which was to make abortion illegal. They didn't have the votes to do that. So, in order to get Supreme Court Justices nominated, they ended the filibuster.
Candidate Donald Trump promised that he would only nominate Supreme Court Justices who supported overturning Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, out of the many lies--endless number of lies--that Trump made during his campaign and Presidency, it turns out that this is the one promise that he kept, the one honest statement that he made.
Further, while it looks like, in this rare instance, Trump kept his promise, the Republican Supreme Court Justices, during their Senate confirmation hearings, did not. In fact, Justice Alito and the three Justices nominated by President Trump, all called Roe v. Wade an ``important precedent'' during their confirmation hearings.
Let me quote Justice Alito at his Senate confirmation hearing on January 11, 2006:
Roe v. Wade is an important precedent of the Supreme Court. It was decided in 1973, so it has been on the books for a long time. It is a precedent that has now been on the books for several decades. It has been challenged. It has been reaffirmed.
That was Alito.
In 2017, Justice Gorsuch said at his confirmation hearing:
Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, is a precedent of the United States Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed. A good judge will consider it as precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court, worthy of treatment as precedent like any other.
In 2018, Justice Kavanaugh said at his confirmation hearing:
I said that [Roe v. Wade] is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, entitled the respect under principles of stare decisis. And one of the important things to keep in mind about Roe v. Wade is that it has been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years, as you know, and most prominently, most importantly, reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.
That was Justice Kavanaugh.
But, today, it has become increasingly clear that, despite these statements to the contrary, the three Justices nominated by Trump were hired specifically to overturn Roe v. Wade, and with Justice Alito at the helm, nominated by President George W. Bush, that is precisely what it appears they are set to do.
These are four Justices, all appointed by Presidents who lost the popular vote. Is it any wonder why Americans all over our country are losing faith in their democracy?
Well, you know what I believe: If Republicans can end the filibuster to install rightwing Justices--nominated by Presidents who lost the popular vote--in order to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democrats can and must end the filibuster to make abortion legal and safe.
Let's be clear: If the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, abortion bans will immediately go into effect in 22 States throughout America, with 4 others likely to follow suit. In 10 of these States, it will be illegal to have an abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
For example, in the State of Texas, if Roe v. Wade is struck down, it will be considered a felony for any Texas doctor to perform an abortion on a woman who is raped or impregnated by a family member. Furthermore, that law would actually criminalize abortion, punishing both women and doctors, who could face years in prison if they are found guilty.
Other States have passed similar types of legislation. Mississippi's Governor has even refused to rule out the banning of contraception as a next step--the banning of contraception.
Let us be clear: The Supreme Court, no matter how it ends up ruling, will not be able to ban abortion.
If you are wealthy and if you have the means to get on an airplane or drive hundreds of miles to a clinic, you will have access to a safe abortion. But if you are poor or a member of the working class, it is likely that you will not. The reality is that overturning Roe v. Wade would be devastating to low-income and working-class women, who do not have the means to travel long distances to get an abortion.
The issue we are discussing tonight is often framed as a ``woman's issue.'' I disagree. This is a human rights issue. And if there has ever been a time in American history when the men of this country must stand with the women of this country, this is that moment.
I do find it somewhat amusing that the loudest voices in the Republican Party demanding that women be forced to give birth against their will are exactly the same people who oppose virtually every effort here in Congress designed to improve life for children and their mothers.
These Republicans are opposed--and some Democrats are opposed--to paid family and medical leave in America. They literally believe that it is acceptable for an employer to force a mother to go back to her job a week after giving birth. Some Republican colleagues want women, regardless of what they believe, to have a baby, but they could care less about those babies once they are born.
These same Republicans, without exception, are opposed to extending the $300 a month child tax credit that expired in December and went a long, long way to making it easier for working-class families to raise their children with dignity. These same Republicans are opposed to universal childcare and free pre-K.
It is no great secret that women throughout the history of our country have had to fight valiantly for their basic human rights against all forms of patriarchy. Let us never forget that when our country was formed, women were not just second-class citizens; they were third or fourth class citizens.
Women have been fighting for equal rights in this country since the 1800s. They didn't receive the right to vote until 1920. If you can believe this--and people don't know this--women needed a male cosigner on bank loans until 1974. Women had to get a male cosigner for a bank loan until 1974.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s--and way, way before that--women had to fight for entry into certain professions from which they were barred. The fight for equal pay continues to this day.
Let us be clear. When it comes to the rights of women, we cannot go backward. We must go forward. We cannot go back to the days when women could not have full access to birth control. We cannot go back to the days of wide-scale domestic violence against women. The time has come for all of us to protect and expand women's rights in America.
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