Women's Reproductive Rights

Floor Speech

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Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today during a dark time in our Nation's history when the right to an abortion--the fundamental right to decide what happens to your own body--is under threat. Today, I rise to tell the stories from patients and providers in my district.

The stories I am about to tell provide a glimpse as to what life will be like if Roe v. Wade is indeed struck down in the final decision of the Supreme Court.

These stories come from my local Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley who offer high quality healthcare--from STD testing to contraception and abortion care. Since the Supreme Court decided to allow State-based abortion bans to remain in place, it has become such an incredible resource, not only for my constituents but for those living in other States where abortion is not as accessible.

Just last month, a mother of four and her husband drove all the way from Houston, Texas, to the Planned Parenthood Health Center in Pasadena, California, in my district because of Texas' draconian vigilante law, S.B. 8, because she was unable to get care at home because she was 7 weeks pregnant. This was just 1 week past the State limitation.

She did not have options in Texas. She and her husband knew that another child was not the right choice for them. They put all four of their children in the car and drove for 20 hours to Pasadena. They came to Pasadena because after searching everywhere in surrounding States, the appointment in Pasadena was the soonest one she could get. She was not wavering in her decision. She was sure she wanted an abortion.

She and her family spent a day and a half driving to California, a day in California when the procedure was done, and then had to spend another day and a half driving home. The time, the expense, and the time off work to have a 3-minute procedure done is an undue and egregious burden that people are already facing when trying to access safe and routine abortion care.

This mother was in and out of her appointment within 2 hours from start to finish but had to spend over 40 hours of time and money to access healthcare that should be readily available to anyone who needs it.

Another patient from Texas came to Planned Parenthood in Pasadena in March of this year. She had originally been scheduled to go to Oklahoma for a medication abortion but felt that she needed more time to decide if terminating her pregnancy was the right choice for her.

After taking a few days to think about her decision, she lost that appointment in Oklahoma. She flew to California to receive a medication abortion at 9 weeks pregnant. She and her support person had to incur the cost of the flight to Los Angeles and an overnight hotel stay, as well as time off of work to access abortion medication.

These are just two stories out of the hundreds of patients that Planned Parenthood Pasadena sees every day, but it illustrates what we are talking about with regard to the right to an abortion. We mean real people and real women with lives and jobs and families whose right to decide what to do with their own bodies and their own futures have been taken away by politicians looking to score political points. It is wrong. It is cruel. It is unjust.

I will not stop fighting to enshrine abortion rights into Federal law and for passage of my bill, the Women's Health Protection Act, which this body passed in September of 2021 by a vote of 218-211, making it the most supported abortion rights bill in the history of Congress.

I will continue to fight for these patients, to fight for these women, and to fight for the hundreds of patients like them every single day who deserve quality healthcare.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Chu, the founder and chair of the ASPIRE Caucus, for her leadership on this issue. She is the author of the Women's Health Protection Act, which we supported and passed in this House, and which we hope to pass in the Senate, and we will fight with all of our strength to pass eventually.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all of my colleagues for sharing their stories and the stories of their constituents. I ask the public to send us their stories so we can read them into the Record as we talk about the need to protect the freedom of women to make choices about their own healthcare.

I firmly believe that there is no democracy if the women in this country--half the population in this country--cannot make basic decisions about their own bodies, their own healthcare, their own choices, including reproductive healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues that have reached out and said they wanted to be here tonight, but they couldn't for other reasons. We hope to have future speak-outs and future Special Orders.

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