Durbin: Democrats Won't Rest Until We Restore Access To Women's Reproductive Health Care Nationwide

Floor Speech

"This week, the fate of women's health care rests with the Supreme Court of the United States. In the coming days, the Justices are expected to decide whether one activist judge in Texas can single-handedly disregard decades of medical professional consensus, whether he can create chaos for doctors and women seeking abortions, and cut-off access to reproductive health care nationwide… It has been less than one year since the Court's right-wing majority issued its decision overruling Roe v. Wade. And here we are faced with the very real possibility that mifepristone--a pill the Food and Drug Administration approved more than 20 years ago--could be banned, or severely restricted, all across the nation… Even in states where abortion remains legal.

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The Dobbs ruling didn't resolve anything. It merely paved the way for activist judges to impose their radical agenda on everyone else--even in states which have voted to protect the right to abortion," Durbin continued. "So this attempt to ban this medication [mifepristone] isn't grounded in science, and it certainly isn't grounded in genuine concern for the safety of women. You see, Judge Kacsmaryk is a longstanding, outspoken critic of abortion rights. Just this weekend, the Washington Post revealed that he failed to disclose to the Senate Judiciary Committee an article he co-wrote criticizing abortion rights when he was nominated to the federal bench.

In this case, the plaintiffs--a group of right-wing activists--filed a lawsuit challenging the FDA's approval of mifepristone in the Amarillo Division of the Northern District of Texas. Under the district court's rules, all cases filed in the Amarillo Division are assigned to one judge: Judge Kacsmaryk. So these right-wing activists knew that, if they filed an anti-abortion lawsuit in Amarillo, their case would be decided by a friendly judge who shares their anti-abortion views, and his ruling could a have an impact not just in Amarillo and Texas but the entire United States of America. And the plaintiffs got exactly what they wanted. The scheme worked. He delivered the biggest blow to reproductive rights since last year's Dobbs decision.

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Just look at how fast these attacks on reproductive health care have escalated. First, the Supreme Court overturned decades of legal precedent to revoke a constitutional right for the first time ever. Now, less than a year later, one judge in Texas has decided to escalate the situation. He wants to take drug approval decisions out of the hands of our medical and scientific experts at the FDA, and violate decades of congressional and agency precedent. So naturally, the American people are wondering: what's next? How far will the far-right go in destabilizing our lives and the rule of law? Is birth control next? Vaccines? Medicine for HIV/AIDS? It's a genuine question. Just ask health care providers in Illinois who are wondering if they may face criminal charges for providing vital--and potentially life-saving--care.

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If Dobbs returned the question of abortion back to the states and their elected leaders, what about my state and our elected leaders? Our voters spoke, and our leaders took action to reflect their will to strengthen access to abortion. So why is it that a judge in Texas has the last word when it comes to [medication] abortion in my state?

The war on women's health care has gone too far. That's why this Senate needs to stop the chaos and protect a women's right to choose once and for all by passing the Women's Health Protection Act… We've learned what happens when you revoke a constitutional right from the American people. We can never let that happen again. We need to respect the rights of women to make their own health care decisions… And Democrats won't rest until we restore access to these constitutional rights nationwide."

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