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Floor Speech
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Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, the Senate should absolutely support the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act.
Currently, abortion is banned in 10 States, with many more set to follow--now, not in Colorado, where we acted strongly to support access to reproductive care. Like other pro-choice States, we are seeing a large influx of patients. Yet we have heard tragic stories of women sleeping in their cars overnight outside of clinics, after traveling hundreds of miles, as they wait for appointments.
After the Texas abortion ban took effect, one woman had her water break at 19 weeks--actually, on her wedding day. She had moved up her wedding day. The doctors recommended terminating her pregnancy to protect her life, increase the possibility, the likelihood, she could have children in the future. But it wasn't allowed in Texas, so she flew to Colorado for emergency care. Her doctor had her make a plan for this travel, make a plan in case she went into labor on the flight. The plan was to sit near the bathroom.
That is what it will soon come to for women in half of America. Without this legislation, a woman could face prosecution for traveling across State lines. Let that sink in: Her choice would be possible jail or probable death.
This bill will protect every woman's right to travel to seek reproductive care--basic freedom. It would also protect doctors who would practice in States like Colorado and protect them from prosecution and lawsuits for helping out-of-State patients.
Fundamentally, as my fellow Senators have said, this is about freedom. In this new post-Roe era, women can be forced into government- mandated pregnancies. States are stripping women of the freedom over their bodies and their future. The least we should do is protect every patient traveling to receive care that just a few weeks ago was permitted nationwide.
Threatening millions of women and doctors with jail time for seeking or providing reproductive healthcare would be a stain on this Nation. I hope we can find 60 Senators to support this bill.
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