MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Senator Shaheen, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate the chance to talk with you.

SHAHEEN: Nice to be with you.

MADDOW: Thank you.

Democrats control the Senate -- so, your party can pretty well control the agenda in the Senate within reason. Why did Democrats put the Republicans anti-contraception bill, this Blunt amendment, up for debate? Why put this out there?

SHAHEEN: Well, what`s unfortunate is that this is an amendment that`s being proposed to the highway bill, the transportation bill, that has broad bipartisan support. And the Blunt Amendment is very divisive amendment that the Republicans want to get a vote on.

And so, we want to get moving to the highway bill that`s going to put people back to work, that has bipartisan support. And so, we said, you know, we`ll vote on your amendment.

It is a continuation attacks we have seen on women`s health that began with the effort to defund Planned Parenthood and then stop supporting family planning services, Title X, and now we`re seeing an effort to prevent women`s access to contraceptive care.

MADDOW: Is it your sense as this is going to be voted on as you and others have drawn attention to this, trying to make sure that everybody understands what`s being voted on here, is it your sense your colleagues on the Republican side are a little bit split on this?

Olympia Snowe, who`s announced that she`s not going to run for reelection, she told Andrea Mitchell on this network today that she has worries about the bill. There are some people who are uncommitted.

Do you sense that Republicans may not be unified on this anymore?

SHAHEEN: Well, I hope not. What this amendment would do would be to take the efforts around preventing access to contraceptives a step further, because what it does is say that any employer, any corporation can deny anyone any preventive or essential health service based on their own religious or moral beliefs, and they don`t define what the beliefs have to be. So, it really opens a Pandora`s Box to say we can deny vaccinations for kids if you don`t believe in that, you could deny HIV/AIDS screenings if you don`t believe in those. You could deny type II diabetics their preventive care if you don`t like their lifestyle.

So, I think this is fundamentally an attack on women`s access to contraceptives. But it really opens the door to a much broader impact for families, for spouses, for children, in a way that I think is going to have
very far-reaching effects.

MADDOW: We have been trying on this show to contextualize what`s happening at the federal level, alongside what`s happened in so many Republican-led state legislatures, and with so many Republican governors --a lot of anti-abortion legislation, moving around the country, a lot of anti-contraception including some bills in some states that would likely ban all hormonal forms of contraception, if these things pass. Oklahoma is very close to passing something like right now.

One of the things that happened since that is that there`s been sort of a backlash. We have protests at the Oklahoma state capitol. We have seen a new political action committee of women forming in Virginia. We`ve
seen large demonstrations in Virginia.

Do -- does that resonate at the federal level when Republicans and Democrats are making strategic decisions on this, are you cognizant of what`s happening at the state level on these issues, too?

SHAHEEN: Well, sure. And we hear from people in our own states. The fact is women want to make their own decisions. These are very private and personal health care decisions. Women and their doctors and their families should be making these decisions. Government should not be getting between a woman and her doctor.

MADDOW: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic of New Hampshire -- it`s very good to have you with us. It`s always nice for you to be able to be here.

SHAHEEN: Nice to be with you.

MADDOW: Thank you so much.

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