Women's History Month and a Woman's RIght to Choose

Floor Speech

Ms. RICHARDSON. In this month of March, as we celebrate Women's History Month, I would like to take a moment to recognize some of our great female leaders who, throughout history, have persevered in the face of monumental opposition and successfully have accomplished great things on behalf of the American people.

From the words of the great poet, Maya Angelou, from the beautiful singing voice of Marian Anderson, from the tireless activism of Dolores Huerta, to the groundbreaking leadership of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, and, of course, our own Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, these women and many more have played an integral role in the history in this Nation.

Madam Speaker, every day, women take great strides to help others and to improve the quality of life for everyone. Unfortunately, in matters involving health care, women are still facing these challenges. Whether it's on the Senate floor last week during a debate on the Blunt amendment or whether it's during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, women continue to face unwarranted attacks on their reproductive health rights and their access to contraceptives.

More disconcerting, these debates and veiled attacks have escalated beyond misguided attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now they've taken aim at restricting women's choices in the area of reproductive health altogether. This is wrong. Medical decisions about a woman's health must leave the political arena and be left to the discretion of the patient and their doctor, not employers, and certainly not the government.

It is astonishing and disappointing that more than 50 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, a decision which found that women have a constitutional right to use contraceptives, continued attacks on women's rights of privacy and health care still persist, and at an alarming rate.

The American people want us to work towards addressing their top priority: creating jobs, not their reproductive rights. However, this Congress seems to be more focused on bringing forward legislation that targets women's access to basic health care. In this Congress alone, we've taken eight votes on antiwomen health legislation.

A 2011 Guttmacher Institute study found that over 90 percent of women, and over 90 percent of Catholic women, between the ages of 15 and 44 have used some sort of birth control at some point during their lives. Birth control can cost up to $600 a year. So for a college student, a woman who's had multiple children and is still in childbearing years, low-income women or those who are underinsured, insurance coverage means the difference between accessing contraceptive services or not.

Quite simply, Madam Speaker, all women should have the choice and access to contraception and have the resources no matter where they work, where they live, or where they go to college. This is why I'm proud to support President Obama's Affordable Care Act, which I voted on, which will make a positive impact on women and children in their access to health care and greatly decrease the number of women and their families who are uninsured or underinsured.

Studies have shown that women who have health insurance don't always receive the medical care they need because their policies don't cover certain services or the women simply can't afford the high deductibles and copayments. The Affordable Care Act changes this unfortunate reality by assisting women in gaining access to basic preventive health care in order to prevent life-threatening diseases in the future.

Our country is facing great challenges. People need jobs. Students need affordable education. Seniors and working families need affordable health care. But one thing we don't need is to continue to waste time debating extreme legislation that is dangerous to women's health, disrespects the judgment of American women, and is nothing less than the most comprehensive and radical assault on women's health in our lifetime.

Madam Speaker, as people all over America pay tribute during the month of March to the generations of women who have committed to progress and have proved invaluable assets to our society, let us in Congress renew our commitment to support women--not with certificates at banquets, but by working to ensure equal treatment of all women in society, providing women with equal access to health care, and protecting women's rights, and their families, to choose once and for all their own health care.

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