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

Floor Speech

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Ms. HASSAN. Madam President, I rise today to join Senator Baldwin and Senator Blumenthal and all of my colleagues who are speaking in support of the Women's Health Protection Act. And I want to thank Senator Whitehouse for his eloquence just now in describing the real life and death consequences of the Dobbs decision.

I want to thank advocates from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other organizations who have been tirelessly pushing for this legislation and standing up and speaking out for reproductive freedom. The grave threat to the health and freedom of women all across our country makes clear that it is more important than ever for Senators, regardless of political parties, to come together and support this critical legislation. Nothing less than the freedom of American women and the future of our democracy itself depends on us doing so.

For more than two centuries, each successive generation of Americans has enjoyed more freedoms than the last. By extending the promise of our democracy to all Americans, our country has only become stronger. But the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade brought that story of progress to an abrupt halt, taking away a fundamental freedom from millions of women--a freedom that most have known for their entire lives.

Now, when women across the country raised the alarm following the Supreme Court's decision, there were those who suggested that we were overreacting. They suggested that life for most women would continue as it did before. Well, it has become very, very clear that those who espoused that view were wrong.

Since the Supreme Court's decision, legislatures across the country have passed abortion bans into law. Just last week, Wyoming's Legislature passed a new law which will ban abortion in all trimesters, in nearly all cases, and would threaten doctors who perform abortions with jail time. Other States have imposed even harsher criminal penalties. This has had a chilling effect on women's healthcare providers and countless women can no longer access reproductive care that they need.

Partisan politicians who believe women are incapable of making their own critical healthcare decisions have made clear that their ultimate goal is to ban abortion in all 50 States. In statehouses and here in Washington, these partisan politicians have demonstrated that they are not only committed to dismantling women's healthcare but that they do not believe that women have the capacity or conscience to make their own personal decisions.

Like many of you, in the last 10 months, I have heard from women at rallies, in letters, and in quiet conversations who are fearful of these attacks on reproductive freedom. The question before this Senate is whether or not we believe that we have an obligation to listen to their voices, whether or not our government should be accountable to the people, including women. What is at stake is the principle that American women are free and equal citizens in our democracy and that they should be able to chart their own futures. That is why I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting the Women's Health Protection Act, which would once again protect a woman's fundamental freedom in every part of the country.

We can't stand idly by as women across America have become second- class citizens. We should stand united in the belief that our daughters deserve the same freedoms as everyone else.

If we want to ensure that our country remains a place where the promise of our democracy belongs to all, where our daughters are free to make their own choices and reach their fullest potential, where we remain a government by, of, and for the people, then we must listen to American women and support the Women's Health Protection Act.

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