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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this is a dark, enraging moment for our Nation. I have made that clear already, and so have so many of our Democratic colleagues. But I am speaking on the floor today because we cannot back down for a minute. We cannot lose sight of the terrifying reality that Republicans want to end the right to abortion, and they are within weeks of accomplishing that goal.

Very soon, the Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade and fulfill Republicans' decades-long goal of controlling women's bodies and rolling back everyone's fundamental right to decide whether or not to start a family.

Let me say that again because it is shocking, and it is true. In a matter of weeks, women across the country will lose a constitutional right they have had for half a century. The steady march forward to secure women's rights that generations before us fought for will be reversed, and my daughter and granddaughters will have fewer rights than I did.

Women will be forced to carry pregnancies to term when it is not right for them, and Republicans will be responsible. This is the future that they have been fighting for. This is the America that they want, and they are not done yet.

Republicans are hell-bent on rolling back the clock. Last week, they blocked our bill to protect Roe and the right to abortion, but they are not going to stop at overturning Roe and shredding patients' rights to make decisions about their own bodies. In States across the country, Republican lawmakers are banning abortion without exceptions. They are targeting people who help a women get an abortion, doctors who are providing essential healthcare, friends and family members who are just supporting a loved one, and even the drivers just doing their job and helping patients get to medical appointments.

Republicans are working around-the-clock to make it harder for women and families to control their own futures. They are coming after the birth control and IUDs that tens of millions rely on to plan a family on their own terms. They are coming after Plan B. They are even putting patients' ability to get the IVF care they need to help start a family at risk.

My Republican colleagues right here in the Senate have made clear that they have their sights set on something really extreme: They want a nationwide ban on abortion. Republicans aren't content with some States banning abortion and creating health crises that spill across State lines; they want to eliminate the right of every woman in America to get an abortion in Washington State and everywhere else. It is not hypothetical, and it is not some far-off worry. It is appalling, and it is completely backward.

Republicans want to force us all with them into their time machine, but we are not going to let them. Democrats are fighting Republicans' increasingly extreme policies at every step of the way.

In the coming weeks, we are going to remind each and every American of the rights that Republicans want to rip away. We won't allow Republicans to run and hide from the reality of their extreme agenda. We are going to be on the floor each week highlighting how Republicans are doing everything they can to hit rewind on our rights, highlighting every protection and freedom that Republicans are ripping away from people across the country, and we are going to show the country how Republican policies hurt everyone. We are going to expose the Republicans' radical and unpopular views on everything from abortion to family planning to sex ed. We are going to make clear who is hurt most by their extremism.

This fight did not end when the Republicans blocked the Women's Health Protection Act last week--far from it. People across the country are fed up with Republicans' attacks on their rights. They are fired up, and they are fighting back, and so am I, and so are my Democratic colleagues.

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