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Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to offer a simple resolution, one that reaffirms the basic principle that when you go to the ER, the emergency room, they should be allowed to treat you. When your life is in danger, doctors should be able to do their job. When you need emergency care, including an abortion, no politician should stop you from getting it.
This seems incredibly simple to me. It should not be controversial, especially if everyone who talks about protecting the life of the mother seriously means it. After all, that is what emergency care is for: saving the life of the mother. And yet, when the Biden-Harris administration tried to make clear that these women should get care, many Republicans actually opposed them.
I really want to emphasize, we are talking about women whose water breaks dangerously early or who are experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhaging or sepsis or pre-eclampsia. And still, Republicans actually filed a brief in court saying, essentially, no, we don't think doctors should be required to provide abortion care when a patient's life is at stake.
Their brief rejected that idea--that basic medical reality--of abortion as a stabilizing care. That is really shocking to me, and it should be shocking to everyone.
After a brief like that, I am not going to let any of my Republican colleagues off the hook just for saying they care about the life of the mother--not if they don't lift a finger to actually protect women and to actually make clear that emergency care can include abortion.
We need to send a very clear message on this. The Senate needs to speak with one voice and tell the American people: Yes, we want to make sure your doctor can save your life. Your doctor can save your life.
Before my Republican colleagues get up to object, let me be clear. You will not get by pretending a resolution like this isn't necessary, not when we are hearing now firsthand from doctors racked with guilt for decisions that Republican politicians made for them; not when they are hearing firsthand from women who have bled, suffered, and nearly died because their care was delayed; and, certainly, not when Texas saw maternal deaths now skyrocket because of its strict abortion ban. The data in Texas paints a clear, brutal picture of the reality. These abortion bans are killing women.
Republicans are also not going to get by trying to shift the blame and argue emergency care is already protected because the whole point of this resolution is to say emergency care is protected. If you oppose the Senate actually saying that, don't you see how this could be part of the problem? Don't you see how that could be very dangerous for women?
I can't emphasize this enough. If you don't see and you don't understand--listen. Women are speaking out. Doctors are speaking out. They are terrified; they are heartbroken; and they are angry. And they are watching right now to see if we can just pass this simple resolution and do the very bare minimum of saying, with one voice, women have a right to get an abortion when their life is at stake--when their life is at stake.
Res. 828 on the right to emergency healthcare, including abortion care; that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I disagree with the Senator from Oklahoma, and let me be perfectly clear about what is happening. Here in America, in the 21st century, pregnant women are suffering and dying, not because doctors don't know how to save them, but because doctors don't know if Republicans will let them.
There are skyrocketing maternal death rates in States like Texas, and as I spoke out on the floor last week, there are at least two women dead in Georgia today because of Republican abortion bans. Those kids are now growing up without a mother. That is the harsh reality.
Republicans can't ignore that. Donald Trump can't shout over it. The American people will not ever forget it. And every day we are going to continue to hold those people who are opposed to this accountable for the cruelty of these abortion bans.
The fact is that the resolution that I offered simply says that doctors can provide emergency care for the life of a mother. I don't understand where the disagreement is, and I hope that we can pass this and give doctors and women the confidence that, in the United States of America, when you are pregnant and having a severe emergency medical situation, you will be treated.
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