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Floor Speech

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Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleagues Senator Murray and Senator Schumer and Senator Durbin and my close colleague from Minnesota Senator Klobuchar and others to stand up for women and for doctors in my home State of Minnesota and around the country.

And I just want to appreciate Senator Durbin for raising Cecile Richards, who was a dear friend of mine and someone who I worked with closely when I worked at Planned Parenthood. And I was thinking about something that Cecile often pointed to. She would quote the great American poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and this poet would say: It is not one damn thing after another. It is the same damn thing over and over again.

And here we have that being shown on the Senate floor. Once again Republicans are here introducing this bill--not to talk about what we can do to lower prices for Americans, not to talk about how we can lower the cost of housing, or how to help people's lives become more affordable.

Instead, one of the very first bills that they are putting forward is for a vote in service of a national abortion ban that, I can tell you, the people in Minnesota do not want, the people in America have made it abundantly clear that they do not want. And I guess the nicest thing you could say about this is that it is out of touch with where Americans are.

But let's talk about it a little bit more because I think it is important that we fight some of the myths and the disinformation that this legislation promotes.

What this bill would do, it would put Congress and politicians in the middle of personal medical decisions that patients and doctors should be able to make together without political interference. It would override physicians' professional judgments about what is best for their patients, and it would put physicians in the position of facing criminal penalties if their judgment about what is best for their patients goes against what is described in this bill.

So, colleagues, let's be clear. At the core of the debate here is whether or not we trust women to make the very best decisions for themselves and their families. And in difficult medical, challenging, often tragic, medical situations, should women and their physicians be making decisions about their lives and their health--often their very lives--or is this about politics?

And I think Americans say this is not about politics. Politics should stay out of it.

I know that everybody on this floor has talked to their own constituents who have experienced what really happens for women who are needing abortion care later in their pregnancy. These stories are inevitably heartbreaking and tragic, and they each are individual and unique. Every situation is different. But they always are about women and families that are thrilled to be pregnant. In some cases, as my colleagues have said, they have already picked out a name. They have decorated the nursery. They have planned a baby shower. But it becomes clear, as the pregnancy progresses, the devastating news that this child is not going to survive. And in some cases, the mother's life is also at risk; her health, her ability to have children in the future are at risk.

And as I said, every situation is going to be unique because everyone is going to have a different diagnosis, different personal histories, different family circumstances, and that means everybody is going to need to have their own individual care. But what every single one of these women have in common is that each one of them deserves the dignity and the autonomy and the freedom to be able to make those decisions, make their own medical decisions, without a bunch of politicians getting in the way.

But let's be really clear here. Women are not waking up in the last weeks of their pregnancy just to change their mind about that pregnancy. I mean, how disrespectful of women is that attitude? Because these are terrible situations where something has gone catastrophically wrong. They are not just changing their minds. They are doing everything they can to take care of themselves and their families.

You know, I know that in this country, we don't tell oncologists how to treat their patients. We don't tell emergency room doctors what they need to do in any specific circumstances to save lives, and we shouldn't be telling women's doctors how to take care of their patients.

But, colleagues, that is what this bill does. It would give politicians in this room a seat in the doctor's offices and in the ERs with women all over this country. And that has an intimidating impact on providers who are already desperately trying to keep their head down and do their jobs while operating under the chaos that has erupted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

So, colleagues, this should be about treating women with respect. We should be all in agreement that decisions about women's healthcare aren't different from decisions about men's healthcare or anyone's healthcare. So why would we be treating women differently?

Colleagues, let's get out of the business of dictating medical care for women. Let's trust women and their doctors.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.

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