Losing Reproductive Rights

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I was 1 month old when the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade recognized the constitutional right to abortion. For most of my life, I had the peace of mind that the decision of when, whether, and how to become a parent would be mine.

I nearly died giving birth to my daughter 11 years ago, when my placenta ruptured 9 weeks before my due date. I was wheeled into the emergency room, and I had the peace of mind that my doctor could do what she felt in that moment was best, without fear of prosecution.

That changed 4 years ago today when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and made me the first generation of my family to lose a constitutional right in my lifetime. Now, my daughter, with fewer rights than me, faces threats to her reproductive freedom.

Today, over one in three women of childbearing years lives in a State with abortion bans or extreme restrictions. At a time when the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any other industrialized nation, women are dying because they can't access the reproductive care they need when they need it, like Nevaeh Crain, who was denied care while suffering a miscarriage until she was septic and died.

As chair of the Abortion Access and Rights Task Force of the congressional Reproductive Freedom Caucus, I am fighting so that everyone has the reproductive freedom they deserve.

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