Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I am proud but I am also saddened and angry to be here introducing a measure that should never be necessary in the United States of America.

The Women's Health Protection Act will, yes, offer protection to women who need and deserve it, but it is only because of a hideously misguided decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that we are here today.

When I first introduced this measure 10 years ago, the thought of overruling Roe v. Wade was unimaginable. It was a figment of fear dismissed by realistic scholars and advocates. It was unthinkable. And here we are.

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a death sentence to women across America. It has overturned 50 years of precedent, which I know well because I was a law clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice who wrote that opinion in the year afterward.

We thought then--and so did most people in America--we have dealt with this issue, we have disposed of it, and it is done in terms of juris prudence. But this measure is now necessary to protect the rights of all people to seek the healthcare they need and deserve.

I will tell you why I believe this measure should be passed. I trust women. I trust women to make decisions about their own future. I trust women more than I do elected officials or judges or government bureaucrats to decide what is right for them individually.

This measure is necessary to stop all of the bans, prohibitions, and medically unnecessary restrictions that have no purpose except to cut off care and stigmatize women seeking healthcare services and the dedicated healthcare providers who serve them.

Now, I have a message to the men of America. This fight is yours, too. This isn't a women's issue. This is an American issue. It is a family issue. And if you think you are spared the conscience and conviction that should require you to stand up and speak out, you are wrong. This issue is yours, too.

We have seen horror stories just in the month since Dobbs. You heard one from my colleague Senator Baldwin. I have a similar one--Amanda Zurawski in Texas, who sadly learned that her baby would not survive, but doctors would not treat her as she might have done in other States. They told her to go home. She almost died of sepsis. They brought her back to the hospital and rushed her to intensive care.

Her husband Josh learned that, as a result, they might never have children. He said:

Amanda almost died. That's not pro-life. Amanda will have challenges having more kids. That is not pro-life. He called it ``barbaric.'' That is the Texas law--barbaric, inhuman.

Protecting access to abortion through the Women's Health Protection Act would not only help people like Amanda--women--it would help families. It would help countless people who simply choose access to abortion care because it is right for them and for their families, for other children who are already part of those families. A woman simply should not be forced to carry a pregnancy to term because some government bureaucrat decides she should.

There is a kind of dirty little secret here, and that is that Black, Latina, indigenous, and other people of color have always faced inexcusable inequities in healthcare access and outcomes due to longstanding systemic discrimination and racism and oppression. The result of it is the practical effect of these abortion restrictions and needless requirements fall disproportionately on them and communities of color.

This point is so important because it goes to the heart of the Women's Health Protection Act. At its core, this bill is about justice. It is about reproductive justice. It was a term that was conceptualized in 1994 by a group of Black women who rightfully saw a national need to highlight and focus on women, families, and communities. Abortion bans and restrictions continue to force women in communities of color who don't wish to carry and deny them the care they need and deserve in moments when their healthcare is at risk.

This bill is critical for communities that are disproportionately harmed by the bans and medically unnecessary restrictions that the Women's Health Protection Act would prohibit. It supports those who face the greatest barriers to care.

I want to, finally, thank in this fight some of the healthcare providers, advocates, lawyers, and staff who have been on the frontline in these past 10 years--people like Jackie Blank, Sara Outterson, and Liz Wagner of the Center for Reproductive Rights; Monica Edwards at URGE; Dr. Jamila Perritt at Physicians for Reproductive Choice; Amy Williams Navarro at NARAL; Karen Stone and Nina Serrianne at Planned Parenthood; Leila Abolfazli at the National Women's Law Center; and so many across the country, including, in Connecticut, Amanda Skinner and Gretchen Raffa at Planned Parenthood, and Liz Gustafson at NARAL Pro- Choice Connecticut.

Make no mistake, this fight will continue. The Women's Health Protection Act will pass. It may not be in the next couple of weeks or couple of months--maybe not even in this session--but it will pass because the conscience of America demands it. That is why referenda have won across the country on this issue. That is why voters went to the polls and showed with their feet where they stand. And that is why we need to fight rulings from the courts, with hard-right Republican judges who have declared a war on women.

As soon as next week, a judge in Texas may rule that mifepristone, the most common form of abortion care in this country, is illegal despite 20 years of safe, effective use with approval of the FDA of that drug. A nationwide ban will affect women in Connecticut if he does it.

We have seen also that Walgreens will not sell or make available mifepristone in 21 States whose State attorneys general have threatened to sue Walgreens if it makes that drug available. They have succumbed to bullying. They said to those attorneys general: OK, women lose; you win.

I urge consumers to vote with their feet and do their business elsewhere and show where they stand.

I am proud to be here with my colleagues to continue this fight for the Women's Health Protection Act.

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