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

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I am pleased to be on the floor today with my colleagues expressing my strong support for protecting women's access to basic healthcare and reproductive rights.

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, we have seen our worst fears realized. A wave of abortion bans have been passed by Republican State legislatures and signed by Republican Governors. These bans put at risk, as we have heard so eloquently from those who have spoken, the health of women across this country.

We have to look no further than my home State of New Hampshire, where our Republican Governor has ensured that women are banned from accessing an abortion after 24 weeks. Our doctors face jail time for helping women access an abortion. Our family planning providers can't make ends meet because elected officials continually block access to Federal and State funding that is vital to ensuring that vulnerable populations have access to care. That care includes basic reproductive education, breast cancer screenings, and sexually transmitted disease treatment--all of which are at risk because those family planning clinics are in financial difficulty because the Republican legislature and the Republican Governor continue to deny them funding.

Just today, Republican representatives in New Hampshire's State Legislature are considering new abortion bans--bans that are so early that most women don't even know they are pregnant. These bans don't include exceptions even for rape or incest.

The Women's Health Protection Act ensures that a woman's access to care is not unnecessarily restricted by where she lives. I want to thank Senators Baldwin and Blumenthal, Senator Murray, and so many others who have been such strong supporters over the years for their leadership in drafting this legislation.

I know you know, Madam President, and certainly all women know that one of the most important personal decisions a woman faces in her lifetime is if and when to start a family. That decision should be made by a woman with her family, with her medical provider, and with whomever else she wants to include in that decision, but it should not be made for her by her State representative, by her Governor, by a Member of Congress, by her President, and certainly not by any unelected jurist. That decision belongs to a woman and a woman alone. It is time for us to restore that right to women all across this country.

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