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Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, in the months since the conservative majority on the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the assault on reproductive rights by anti-choice, MAGA Republicans has been relentless.

Anti-choice States across the country have already enacted strict and rigid abortion bans that strip our rights away, threaten to jail women and their doctors, and put women's health at risk. And just as we have always known, this threat is not just at the State level.

Last week, legislation was introduced in this very Chamber that would enact a national abortion ban, one that would strip women of the fundamental right to control their own bodies. This abortion ban--and that is exactly what it is, a nationwide abortion ban--poses a real and serious threat to the rights of women across this country. This is a dangerous nationwide government mandate that would threaten women and their doctors--threaten them--with jail time, including those in my State of Nevada.

Pro-choice States like Nevada, where the people voted overwhelmingly to protect reproductive freedoms as part of State law, would be forced--forced--to abide by this Federal mandate. Because Federal law supersedes State law, this legislation would override the will of Nevadans and the freedom--the freedom--that they have had for decades.

If anti-choice Republicans in Congress have their way and their national abortion ban passes--listen to this--then Nevada's doctors could be prosecuted; Nevada's women could be jailed; and Nevada's women could die as a result of a lack of access to care.

So let's be clear. The only thing standing in the way of their national abortion ban is the pro-choice majority in the U.S. Senate, and I will do everything I can to fight this legislation threatening our reproductive rights not just in Nevada but across the country.

That is why I helped to introduce the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, along with Senators Murray, Padilla, and the Acting President pro tempore, Senator Lujan, to protect doctors in States like Nevada, where abortion remains legal and protects women from facing prosecution and potentially jail by anti-choice States. No doctor--let me repeat this. No doctor should ever be jailed for providing women with the reproductive and often lifesaving care they need wherever these women are from. No doctor should ever be jailed for providing care.

Anti-choice Republicans in the Senate have blocked these efforts in the past as they have continued to push for dangerous bans.

Today--today--we have another opportunity to protect doctors and their patients by passing this legislation--without obstruction or delay--because let's be clear: We will not--we will not--give up. We will not allow a national abortion ban to pass the Senate. We will not allow doctors to face prosecution for doing their jobs. We must--we must--protect a woman's right to choose and continue fighting against this ban every step of the way.

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