[Pages S3507-S3512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Abortion

  Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Mr. President, there are moments in our lives 
when everything changes, when the world shifts underneath you and a new 
reality forms. These are moments when you remember exactly where you 
were, what you were doing, and who you were with.
  June 24, 2022, was one of those days. Three years ago, I marched with 
my House colleagues to the Supreme Court. I stood in solidarity with 
Democrats and Republicans alike. We felt shock, disbelief, anger, and 
sadness at the loss of one of our fundamental rights. On that day, Roe 
v. Wade was overturned, and for many, their lives were turned upside 
down.
  Since then, extreme Republicans and President Trump have said that 
abortion is a States' rights issue--States' rights. Yet, over the last 
3 years, we have watched as quietly and purposefully they have chipped 
away at our rights, chipped away at our bodily autonomy, because the 
goal has always been a national abortion ban.
  Three Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices and the Dobbs decision 
later and we are still watching this unfold. Anti-abortion extremists 
have been piecing together a puzzle that, when it is completed, will 
create a national abortion ban, and they add a new piece each and every 
day.
  Over the next hour, my colleagues and I will lay out what the 
Republican national abortion ban looks like, what it means for everyday 
Americans, and what we can do about it because these efforts will hurt 
all of us--especially young women, women of low income, women in rural 
areas, and women of color.
  For me, this is personal. I could have lost my daughter-in-law 
because she did not get the care she needed. And I remember getting a 
call on Christmas morning. I was in the kitchen, I was cooking, and I 
heard my daughter-in-law on the other end of the phone say: Mom, my 
water just broke. It is too soon.
  She went to the hospital, but, again, the hospital we went to could 
not provide the care that she needed for the miscarriage that she was 
having, and they sent her home. I remember thinking about all the 
committee hearings that I had on the Health Subcommittee in--the Health 
Committee in the House and how the data was clear that we in this 
country have a maternal mortality crisis, that Black women die three 
times the rate of our White counterparts, and all I could think was, we 
have to get you somewhere. And we did.
  Fortunately, Ebony is here alive today. Fortunately, Ebony was able 
to have my beautiful granddaughter--because of IVF, I might add.
  But stories like these are all too common. It disproportionately 
affects Black and Brown women. We face reproductive challenges. We have 
a higher mortality rate. We have higher rates of reproductive cancers. 
We have higher rates of preterm births.
  Like I said, this is personal.
  We are here today to show the American people that we did not forget 
about the Dobbs decision, especially because the majority of 
Americans--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents--believe that we 
should have legal and safe abortions.
  We are here today to tell the Republican Party: You can't have it 
both ways. You can't claim to be the party of personal freedom while 
telling us what to do with our bodies.
  President Trump, you can't claim to be the fertilization President 
while making it more dangerous for women to give birth.
  You can't claim to be the party of strong economic growth while 
cutting Medicaid, food assistance, and childcare for many women who 
need it to participate in the workforce--and all to give tax breaks to 
people who already have all of these resources.
  We are here today to show extreme Republicans across the Nation that 
we see what you are doing--quietly assembling the pieces of the puzzle. 
And when it is completed, it will strip Americans of their access to 
abortion care in red States and blue States.
  We are here to show just how important it is that we fight this 
reconciliation bill. Whether you call it a ``Big Bad Bill'' or whether 
you call it a ``Big Ugly Bill,'' whatever you call it, this is the 
moment for people to speak up because it is just another piece of the 
puzzle, and we are here to shine a light on the ultimate goal of a 
national abortion ban.
  I stand here, and I think about the young women I saw as I came to 
this floor. I think about my niece. I think about my daughter and I 
think about my granddaughter and the fact that they now have less 
rights than I did, than my mother did, and than my grandmother did and 
that today it is important for us to not forget and to make sure that 
we recognize what this is all about and that we want the best for our 
young people in this country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I want to make sure that the country and 
this institution knows that the leadership of our new colleague from 
the State of Delaware is making a difference already. She has been 
doing yeoman's work on this for quite some time.
  In fact, in the other body, as it is called, the House of 
Representatives, she stood for the values that have been expressed here 
today and we so appreciate her leadership and I thank her, personally, 
for including me.
  We are on the floor to mark an anniversary of what was essentially 
the end of women having power over healthcare decisions. Before Roe v. 
Wade was overturned, many of my Democratic colleagues and I warned that 
it would be deadly for women. We were labeled liars and gaslighters and 
fearmongers. And, unfortunately, for the women of America, you don't 
have to take our word for it. Since the Dobbs ruling was handed down 3 
years ago, 22 States have passed restrictive, near- or total abortion 
bans, and countless women have died as a direct result of those laws.
  In Georgia, Amber Nicole Thurman died after she developed an 
infection during pregnancy and was denied lifesaving reproductive care 
under her State's new abortion law.
  In Texas, Porsha Ngumezi, a mom of two, was expecting her third child 
when she suddenly developed complications and began miscarrying. She 
died after going to the ER where she was denied the care she needed, 
and she was left to bleed out all because her doctors were too scared 
to perform the necessary medical care under Texas's abortion law.
  Josseli Barnica of Texas was pregnant, hoping to give her daughter 
another sibling, when she developed complications with her pregnancy. 
She rushed to the hospital where doctors left her to suffer for 40 
hours without giving her the healthcare she needed. That was because it 
was illegal under Texas law. She died 3 days later after developing a 
preventable infection because she had been denied care.
  Despite Federal law that requires providers to give women 
reproductive care in emergency medical situations, these States are 
letting women die anyway. Every single one of these deaths was 
preventable if Republican lawmakers hadn't put abortion bans in place 
that threaten doctors and hospitals with jail time and other legal 
actions if they provide necessary reproductive care.
  Many of the women hurt by these abortion bans are already mothers or 
women hoping to start a family, but because they are being denied 
necessary care, those that don't die are often being left with 
complications that take away their ability to have kids in the future.
  In Tennessee, Breanna Cecil had to travel out of State, all the way 
to Chicago, to get an abortion after a complication with her pregnancy. 
But before returning to Tennessee, she developed a recurring infection 
that resulted in invasive surgery that left her infertile. Breanna says 
that her State's strict abortion law ``took away her fertility.''
  So I am going to end very briefly by fast forwarding to 2025. 
Republicans don't seem to have learned any lessons. They don't seem 
phased by the pain and suffering their laws are causing

[[Page S3508]]

women and mothers across the land. Instead, they are doubling down on 
their efforts to restrict access to reproductive care for even more 
women; this time, through a backdoor abortion ban in the reconciliation 
budget bill. This legislation contains a provision that would strip 
funding from Planned Parenthood clinics that perform abortion services.
  Mr. President, Planned Parenthood does not receive a single dime--not 
a dime--of Federal funding for abortion care. These clinics do receive 
funding to provide essential care, like STD and cancer screenings and 
annual exams--often, for women of color or women living in low-income 
communities to have access to this care.
  All of this will be ripped away under the Republicans' ``Big Bad 
Budget Bill,'' alongside the 16 million people they plan on kicking off 
their health insurance with their Medicaid and affordable care cuts.
  Before Roe was overturned, I warned repeatedly that the loss of 
privacy--the loss of the right to make your most private decisions free 
of government intrusion--would have a domino effect. Unfortunately, 
that has become the reality. The overturn of Roe has not stopped an 
abortion.
  Since the Dobbs ruling, Republican lawmakers and conservative judges 
have also taken aim at the use of IVF and contraception. A headline out 
of Ohio, less than 1 week ago, reads:

       Republican lawmakers in Ohio to propose total abortion and 
     IVF ban.

  The endgame for Republicans here is a politician in every single exam 
room and bedroom in America; a politician between you and your doctor, 
between you and your spouse.
  The overturn of Roe has stripped women in America of the right to 
make their own healthcare decisions. It has stripped women of control 
over their own bodies and has stripped women of their basic 
constitutional rights.
  Mr. President, ever since I chaired the first-ever congressional 
hearing on access to abortion medication, back in 1990, I felt that 
this was a fundamental right that women were entitled to. I am just as 
committed today to battling against these draconian laws as long as it 
takes to secure women the ability to make their own healthcare 
decisions.
  I see a number of my colleagues on the floor who have been eloquent 
speakers for women's healthcare. I want to close by thanking my 
colleague from Delaware, again, for championing all of us to be here at 
this time to make sure that we made a difference and spoke out. We very 
much appreciate your leadership.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today to mark 3 years since half 
of America was stripped of their reproductive freedom. That is 3 years 
of women having fewer constitutional rights and freedoms in this 
country than their mothers and grandmothers; 3 years of women being 
forced to travel hours out of State to access basic care; and 3 years 
of Americans unable to make their own choices about their own bodies, 
their own health, their own families, their own future.
  In Wisconsin, women don't have to imagine what the consequences of 
Roe v. Wade being overturned would be like. We lived it. For 15 months, 
in my State, women were sent back to live under a law that was passed 
before the Civil War. Yes, you heard me correctly--a law that was 
passed in 1849, 70 years before women would get the right to vote and 
only 1 year after the State of Wisconsin became a State.
  Women who wanted to control their bodies had to drive hours. They had 
to arrange childcare, take time off of work, and pay for lodging just 
to access healthcare. Other pregnant women in our State bled in 
hospital parking lots for hours until they were on the verge of death 
before they were legally allowed to receive care.
  Others, like Meagan, one of my constituents, found out that she and 
her husband were expecting. They found that out in April of 2023. She 
told me:

       That day rivaled our wedding day for the happiest we'd ever 
     been.

  But that joy didn't last. At her 20-week ultrasound, Meagan 
discovered that her baby had severe abnormalities and likely would not 
survive. What is worse, every day that Meagan remained pregnant, her 
life was in danger too. But instead of grieving their loss in private 
and at home, Meagan and her husband were forced to travel to Minnesota 
to end her pregnancy.
  She wrote to me last year:

       The government claims that if my life is at risk, they 
     would make exceptions, but how sick does one need to be? Do I 
     need to be bleeding out before a doctor can intervene? Does 
     someone need to go septic before a procedure would be 
     performed?

  The answers to those questions under Wisconsin's pre-Civil War 
abortion ban was, sadly, yes.
  Thankfully, Wisconsin has restored access to abortion care in three 
counties. That still leaves women in 69 counties who face long drives 
and wait times to see a doctor for care.
  I will be the first to say that we have some serious work to do to 
give women the full freedom to control their bodies. But instead of 
listening to the vast majority of Americans and working in good faith 
to restore Roe, my Republican colleagues are doing just the opposite.
  The Republicans' ``Big Beautiful Betrayal'' is another step toward a 
backdoor national abortion ban. Their bill will defund Planned 
Parenthood, putting access to abortion care, once again, in jeopardy 
for Wisconsin women. And for many Americans, Planned Parenthood clinics 
are the only option they have for affordable healthcare, from basic 
reproductive care to lifesaving cancer screenings.

  This ``Big Beautiful Betrayal Bill'' says that the mother of three, 
the young woman trying to make ends meet, the veteran in need of care, 
and anyone else on Medicaid can't use their coverage at Planned 
Parenthood for things like annual checkups, cancer screenings, birth 
control--not abortion, just basic healthcare that everyone needs and 
that my Republican colleagues, by the way, say they support.
  But by doing this, it will defund one of the only abortion providers 
in many places and take Republicans one step closer to their ultimate 
goal of banning abortion nationwide.
  It is no secret that this has been their plan. Since the day Roe was 
decided, it has become the mission of so many Republicans to turn back 
the clock and take away this constitutional right, this freedom.
  And it all came to a head when our current President was last in 
office. Our current President's litmus test when nominating Supreme 
Court Justices was, of course, if they would rule to take away a 
woman's right to abortion. I don't think I need to tell you what 
happened next.
  But overturning Roe was not enough for President Trump. In just the 
past 5 months, he has worked to undermine a woman's right to lifesaving 
abortion care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, 
otherwise known as EMTALA. He has worked to freeze title X funding for 
family planning and reproductive health services like birth control. He 
has worked to remove medically sound, expert information on 
reproductive care from government websites. And he has worked to 
jeopardize protections for women who are harassed while accessing 
clinics.
  While Republicans advance their plan that will further restrict a 
woman's right to choose, Democrats are fighting back. Today, alongside 
every one of my Democratic colleagues, I introduced the Women's Health 
Protection Act to do what most Americans want: restore reproductive 
freedom for women nationwide.
  I want to give a shout-out to my colleague Senator Blumenthal, with 
whom I worked so closely on the Women's Health Protection Act, over so 
many years.
  This bill would tell Republicans to butt out of women's healthcare, 
ensuring that States can't impose medically unnecessary restrictions, 
like mandatory waiting periods or invasive ultrasounds, that infringe 
upon a woman's right to choose.
  Today, we are not just marking 3 years since Roe v. Wade was 
overturned. We are marking 3 years of my Republican colleagues actively 
blocking any progress to restore the right to choose. We are marking 3 
years of women's lives being in danger because Republicans are in our 
exam rooms, and lawyers across this country are truly playing doctors.
  After 3 years of swearing abortion is an issue for the States, this 
President is chipping away even further at this freedom, and my 
Republican colleagues

[[Page S3509]]

are advancing a plan to further undercut access to affordable 
reproductive care nationwide.
  We are not giving up. We are with the two-thirds of Americans who 
oppose the Dobbs decision and the fundamental rights that it stole from 
millions of women in this country. We are going to fight every day 
until those rights are restored.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am so honored to follow my colleague 
from Wisconsin, who has been such a steadfast and strong partner in 
this effort to advance the Women's Health Protection Act.
  I will be honest in this Chamber. When we first introduced this 
measure, almost 15 years ago, the idea that Roe v. Wade could or would 
be tossed aside was unimaginable. It was firmly established law for 
decades, relied on by American women and men.
  In a stroke of catastrophic, misguided ruling, the Supreme Court cast 
it aside, ignoring strong precedent and all the doctrines of law that 
normally would apply. So the Women's Health Protection Act now is more 
necessary than ever before, certainly than in the days when we first 
offered it.
  My own involvement, actually, in this issue began when I was a law 
clerk to Justice Blackmun in the year after Roe v. Wade. There was 
still controversy about whether Roe would survive. But in decision 
after decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed it. And, in fact, as 
a member of the Connecticut State Senate, I offered a bill, and it 
passed, to codify Roe v. Wade in our State laws in Connecticut.
  Connecticut has led the Nation proudly in protecting reproductive 
rights, in safeguarding access to clinics where abortion services are 
provided, in fighting for Planned Parenthood funding, in protecting 
doctors who provide these critical services to women coming from other 
States that may actually criminalize that kind of care.
  But we know now what the challenge is and what we must do. The 
Women's Health Protection Act should be the law of our land. But in the 
meantime, we have to fight the efforts to handicap and straitjacket 
women in their efforts simply to seek basic healthcare.
  We are in the midst of an assault on women's healthcare. It is really 
an attack on women and families.
  Men have a stake in this fight. You cannot escape this issue simply 
because you are a man. It affects you and your family as much as it 
does women.
  The decision in Dobbs stripped millions of women of the freedom to 
make their own healthcare decisions. The idea that Dobbs would simply 
return the issue of reproductive rights to the State was always 
disingenuous. States across the country have created a full-blown 
healthcare crisis in the chaos and confusion that has ensued.
  Since Dobbs, more than 31 million women live in States where abortion 
is banned or under the threat of banning it, and nearly 9 million women 
live in the 12 States with bills proposing to bring homicide charges 
against them for having an abortion.
  The effects of Dobbs don't have to be a matter of speculation 
anymore. I actually commissioned or requested a study from the GAO in 
2022 about the economic effects of Dobbs. That report has just been 
released 3 years later. My first reaction was: Why did it take so long? 
My second reaction was: Thank goodness you took that long and you did 
an honest and accurate appraisal of what the effects are.
  Here is the bottom line: Dobbs has been a death sentence--literally, 
a death sentence--for countless women, and it has been a condemnation 
to financial disaster for many more.
  This study shows, inextricably, the link between denial of healthcare 
and the maternal mortality rate for women and their financial distress, 
even if they survive.
  The Trump administration has aggravated this problem in, literally, 
just recent weeks. On June 19, 2025, a Trump-appointed Federal judge 
struck down a Biden administration rule that strengthened privacy 
protections for information related to productive healthcare, such as 
abortion and gender-affirming care.
  On March 5, 2025, President Trump announced his administration would 
no longer enforce a Federal law that requires hospitals to provide 
women abortion care in an emergency when their lives are threatened. 
When, literally, they could die, no longer will emergency rooms be 
required to provide that care.
  On April 1 of this year, the Trump administration began withholding 
tens of millions of dollars under title X in family grants for Planned 
Parenthood and other organizations in our country that support critical 
family planning efforts and preventive healthcare, including cancer 
screening, pregnancy testing, birth control, treatment of sexually 
transmitted infections, infertility services, and more. It is not just 
efforts to prevent abortion; it is a war on women's health, launched by 
this administration. And, unfortunately, this administration is just 
getting started.
  The fact is that unsafe and unintended pregnancies have huge costs in 
lives and dollars, impacting all of us. That is why I am proud to live 
in Connecticut that has expanded abortion care and ensured that women 
in other States could access compassionate care if necessary.
  But the attacks by Republicans continue, and they are attacks on 
reproductive freedom, on women's healthcare, seeking now to restrict 
access to abortion medication, refusing to recognize the right to use 
contraceptives, working to defund preventive healthcare through 
Medicaid in clinics like Planned Parenthood.
  I am proud to continue this fight. It is a fight that we absolutely 
must win. It may not be in the next days, but we will be fighting in 
the next days against the provisions of this ``Big Ugly Betrayal'' that 
so disgrace our Nation if passed.
  I am grateful for all of the Members on our side who are joining us 
today on this third anniversary of Dobbs to say: Enough is enough. We 
need to protect reproductive freedoms from this onslaught against 
women.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, right now, this administration is 
causing so much chaos and confusion that it is sometimes hard to take 
stock of the damage being done.
  But the anniversary of the day today, for Roe v. Wade when it was 
overturned, is a reminder that we can't let all of that chaos distract 
us from the work being done to roll back women's reproductive rights 
right under our noses.
  I have to thank my colleague from Delaware Lisa Blunt Rochester and 
all of my colleagues today for really bringing attention and focus to 
the important work we do as Senators but really highlighting the impact 
that decisions made by some of our colleagues, including those in the 
White House, are having a devastating impact across this country on 
women and women's healthcare rights.
  One of the things that is happening right now is this Republican tax 
bill that they are trying to force through Congress right now. This tax 
bill essentially guts reproductive healthcare in this country. The 
Republicans' billionaire tax giveaway bill, as we know it, is a bill 
that will cut $800 billion in Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the 
wealthiest Americans. But the legislation that passed the House would 
also decimate women's healthcare. Not only would it force cuts to 
critical services in this country, but it also cuts off Medicaid 
funding for Planned Parenthood.
  That Medicaid funding wouldn't be going toward abortions. Planned 
Parenthood providers distribute birth control, conduct wellness exams, 
test for and treat STIs, and provide lifesaving cancer screenings.
  For many Americans with Medicaid, especially in underserved areas, 
Planned Parenthood is the only accessible source of this care. 
Defunding it, which is what the Republicans want to do in this 
reconciliation bill, jeopardizes basic healthcare services that more 
than 1 million men and women rely on.
  It is already outrageous that so many Planned Parenthood health 
centers in anti-choice States around the country have been forced to 
close over the last several years, but if they are prohibited from 
treating patients with Medicaid nationwide, many clinics--even in 
States where abortion remains legal, like my State in Nevada--may be 
forced to close their doors.

[[Page S3510]]

  In States like mine, where women have access to essential 
reproductive care, Republicans are working to strip that access away, 
ignoring the will of States like Nevada that have chosen to protect 
these rights.
  Republican legislators in States across the country are also quietly 
working to gut access to reproductive care. Last November, voters in 
seven different States approved ballot measures to protect or expand 
reproductive rights. But in the months since, extremist politicians in 
more than half of those States have tried to ignore the will of their 
voters and push new restrictions on abortion access.
  And in several other States, anti-choice politicians are working to 
block similar ballot initiatives in the future. They are trying to 
ignore what people have clearly voted for, and then they are trying to 
make it so people can't actually vote on those issues at all--because 
let's be clear, for anti-choice politicians, this is about controlling 
women.
  Let me give you an example. In Arizona, voters went to the polls last 
November and overwhelmingly chose to enshrine abortion protections in 
their State constitution. But since then, Republican politicians, in 
their State legislature, have been trying to pass bills that would 
limit the use of medication abortion and ban doctors from even 
informing women about abortion as a potential treatment option.
  Or how about Missouri, where anti-choice politicians are trying to 
get a measure on the ballot that would overturn the abortion rights 
protections Missouri voters just approved last November?
  These plots to subvert the will of voters and roll back women's 
rights in the States may not be capturing everyone's attention right 
now, but it is happening. We need to shed light on it because it is 
just as dangerous as some of the harmful policies coming out of this 
administration.
  We can't forget that this administration is also taking steps to take 
away women's reproductive rights without any input from legislators at 
all.
  The Food and Drug Administration has appointed commissioners who want 
to reexamine the safety of the abortion pill, mifepristone. And, no 
surprise, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. 
Kennedy, Jr., is encouraging it. He has already asked the FDA to 
``review the latest data on mifepristone.''
  Secretary Kennedy is raising questions and injecting doubt about this 
medication that has already been proven to be safe and effective over 
the years. This is a man who, at one time, said he believed it was 
``always the woman's right to choose.''
  Mifepristone accounts for over 60 percent of abortions nationwide. 
Any attempts to restrict access to this medication would jeopardize the 
health and autonomy of women in Nevada and across the country. This is 
an overt tactic by the administration to continue to take away access 
to the abortion pill nationwide.
  In fact, the Trump administration made it more clear than ever that 
they are not concerned about women's safety when they eliminated 
guidance that hospitals have to provide abortions in emergency 
situations.
  We have a law in this country that hospitals that receive Federal 
funding are required to provide medical care to stabilize a health 
emergency, including for pregnant patients. In cases where an abortion 
is necessary to stabilize a patient, hospitals are obligated to provide 
that care. It is called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active 
Labor Act--or EMTALA, as many people know it.
  I want to stress that EMTALA is the law of the land, and emergency 
abortion care is protected under EMTALA. But the problem is that this 
administration is telling women they are unwilling to enforce these 
protections. That is incredibly dangerous, and it ignores the laws.
  It might not be front-page news every day, but when you take all of 
these actions together, it is clear that this administration and 
Republicans at every level of government are taking the steps they need 
to implement a nationwide abortion ban.
  We have to remain vigilant and demand changes when these harmful 
policies emerge because we know that anti-choice politicians all across 
the country, including here in Washington, will continue to push them 
and take away women's access to healthcare.
  It is happening at the Supreme Court, too, where the Justices who 
struck down Roe v. Wade are taking up multiple abortion rights cases.
  So as we mark the anniversary of the decision to overturn Roe v. 
Wade, which took the constitutional right to an abortion away from 
every woman in this country, I want to thank my colleagues who are 
standing strong and standing with me today and every day in this fight.
  We will never stop pushing back against this administration's--and 
any other anti-choice politician's--attempts to make women second-class 
citizens in America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
following Senators be permitted to speak for up to 4 minutes each prior 
to the scheduled vote: Hassan, Klobuchar, Blunt Rochester, and now me.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague Senator Lisa 
Blunt Rochester for holding this floor block to mark a grim--very 
grim--anniversary in America.
  Three years ago today, as we know, MAGA Justices on the Court 
eliminated the protections of Roe in the disastrous, terrible, nasty 
Dobbs decision. In one fell swoop, hard-right Justices overturned 
decades of precedent and ripped away the fundamental right to choose 
for millions of American women.
  When the Dobbs decision was leaked, I stood here on the floor and 
said it would be ``one of the worst and most damaging opinions the 
Court has handed down in modern history,'' and unfortunately, 3 years 
later, that much has proved to be true.
  Today, 21 States have significantly restricted the right to choose. 
At least 14 States have passed what are practically total abortion 
bans. In a State like Texas, maternal mortality is spiking. One in five 
Americans today has to travel great distances, even cross State lines, 
and wait weeks or more to get the care they need. People are dying 
because of the Dobbs decision. And--listen to this--State-level 
restrictions on abortion, combined with the lack of Federal 
protections, are costing the U.S. economy $133 billion nationally. 
Without reproductive healthcare protections, fewer women are 
participating in the workforce, stunting our economy. It is utterly 
regressive.
  Around the Capitol today are women telling their stories, and they 
are amazing and they are heart-wrenching. I stood alongside several 
reproductive rights advocates, including two women whose lives have 
been upended because of Dobbs: Shanette Williams, the mother of Amber 
Thurman, the first woman recorded in Georgia to die because of lack of 
abortion care; and Ashley Ortiz, who couldn't get the care she needed 
because of Arizona's extreme abortion ban. Shanette and Ashley's 
stories are just two examples of the irreparable harm Dobbs has 
inflicted. There are countless more stories like theirs we will never 
hear about.
  The anti-choice fanatics in the Republican Party spent decades 
campaigning to end Roe. Now that the damage is done, Republicans aren't 
backing down on this issue; they are doubling down. As I speak, 
Republicans are trying to jam through one of the most extreme, radical 
anti-choice provisions in their ``Big Ugly Betrayal.'' Specifically, 
they have snuck two provisions into their bill--one defunding Planned 
Parenthood and one eliminating coverage for comprehensive reproductive 
care.
  So Dobbs may have set us back, but today, with Senator Baldwin as our 
lead, we will again introduce the Women's Health Protection Act to 
ensure that healthcare providers have the statutory right to provide 
patients abortion services free from bans and restrictions.
  Republicans know to their core how deeply unpopular their abortion 
bans are, and that is why many Senate Republicans tried to run away 
from the Dobbs decision at first. But, unfortunately, they are back to 
their normal ways, trying to achieve a total, nationwide abortion ban. 
Senate Democrats

[[Page S3511]]

will continue to stand together and fight back against Republicans 
every step of the way.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues to 
stand up for the freedom of American women as we mark the anniversary 
of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and I want to thank 
Senator Blunt Rochester and my colleagues for leading this effort on 
the floor this afternoon.
  In New Hampshire, we proudly call ourselves the Live Free or Die 
State, and today, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what the 
Dobbs decision--a decision that represents the largest attack on 
freedom in modern American political history--means not only for the 
future of American women but, even more fundamentally, for freedom in 
our democracy itself.
  It is difficult to keep up with the Trump administration's attacks on 
freedom, with attacks on our rights to due process, freedom of speech 
and expression, freedom to vote, and more. Perhaps the President hopes 
that with each cascading outrage, the American people will forget that 
he set in motion the events that led to the Supreme Court taking away 
freedom from half of our population--the fundamental freedom of a woman 
to make her own health decisions. But, of course, we haven't forgotten. 
We Americans have never been inclined to forget attacks on our 
liberties.
  What did the Dobbs decision mean? It took away a woman's freedom to 
make deeply personal health decisions, the freedom to decide when and 
if to start a family, the freedom to get lifesaving care when a woman's 
health is imperiled while pregnant.
  This is more than a freedom to get a specific medical procedure. In 
practice, we are talking about the freedom to chart one's own future--a 
freedom which should be enjoyed by all free and equal citizens in a 
democracy. But with the Dobbs decision, for the first time in our 
country's history, our daughters are now less free than their mothers 
were at their age. Since the Dobbs decision, we have become a country 
where a fundamental freedom can vanish once a woman crosses a State 
line. We have returned to a kind of sectionalism of bygone eras that 
history should have taught us to avoid where women who are pregnant and 
live in States with draconian laws banning abortion know that in the 
event of a dire medical emergency, they may have to make a long drive 
to cross State lines or run the risk of being thrown in jail for just 
trying to get lifesaving care.
  This isn't hypothetical. Already, lives have been imperiled and even 
lost in experiences that we have heard from Georgia, Florida, Texas, 
and in States all across the country.
  Indeed, at this very moment, Members of this body are seeking to pass 
legislation--the Republican budget bill--which would, among other 
measures, make it impossible for many women to get the care they need 
and shut down women's healthcare clinics all across the country. Their 
legislation is effectively the final step in establishing a backdoor 
national abortion ban.
  So, to my Republican colleagues: Please stop singing the same song to 
us that the women of America are being alarmist--a song that we heard 
before Roe was overturned and that we have continued to hear since. I 
want to know just when exactly in the process of having one's freedom 
stripped away are we allowed to become alarmed. Are we only allowed to 
be concerned about losing a fundamental freedom once that freedom has 
become nothing more than a memory?
  Ultimately, behind all of this talk of laws and precedent, of State 
statutes and Federal, behind all the medical discussion about women's 
healthcare, the anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe begs 
us to ask a question as simple and as fundamental as they come, a 
question that the opponents of reproductive freedom and the President 
himself ought to answer: When our Declaration of Independence declared 
that all are created equal, does that promise belong to American women 
or do we believe that truth is not self-evident after all?
  When the suffragettes at Seneca Falls wrote that they ``insist women 
have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong 
to them as citizens of the United States,'' do we still believe those 
words or were the suffragettes wrong?
  Do we believe that we are better off when everyone gets to chart 
their own future? In the land of the free, do the full blessings of 
liberty belong to our daughters as well as our sons?
  Can a democracy like ours persist when, divided by State lines, half 
its people live half-free? In the end, that is what this debate is 
really all about.
  So what is it, on this anniversary, that America's women ask for? It 
is simple. They want what all Americans want. Their aspiration is to be 
free. And so long as we wish to call ourselves the world's greatest 
democracy, the President and this body would do well to remember our 
country's promise and heed their call.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today, on the third anniversary 
of the Supreme Court's decision to shred nearly five decades of 
precedent protecting a woman's right to make her own healthcare 
decisions, to say that now is the time to protect freedom.
  I appreciated the words of Senator Hassan from the State of New 
Hampshire, a State grounded in freedom, for her focus on freedom. I 
also thank Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester for bringing us together today.
  In the 3 years since the Supreme Court went against the 70 percent of 
Americans who believe that healthcare decisions should be made by a 
woman, with her family and her doctor, instead of by politicians, women 
have been at the mercy of a patchwork of State laws that are creating 
chaos when it comes to accessing reproductive healthcare.
  Today, 20 States partially or fully ban abortion, affecting more than 
31 million women across the country. I ask why women in Minnesota 
should have different rights--different fundamental rights--than women 
in Texas, why a woman in Oregon should have different rights than a 
woman in Georgia.
  Women are also being forced away from emergency rooms and left to 
travel hundreds of miles for healthcare, and doctors are being 
threatened with prosecution for just doing their jobs.
  In Texas, a pregnant teenager died after being denied care at three 
different hospitals. I will never forget the gut-wrenching testimony I 
heard from another woman, Amanda Zurawski, at a Senate Judiciary 
Committee hearing. She nearly died from sepsis after being forced to 
carry her stillborn daughter Willow to term due to Texas's abortion 
ban. It was a heartbreaking story.
  President Trump has made clear that he was and is, in his own words, 
proudly the person who ended Roe v. Wade, and his administration is 
continuing its assault on women's reproductive freedom. The Trump 
administration has rolled back policies that protect access to 
lifesaving abortion care during medical crises. It has announced it 
will be putting mifepristone under review despite the fact that the 
American Medical Association stated that ``there is no evidence that 
people are harmed by having access to this safe and effective 
medication'' that has been on the market, I would add, for more than 
two decades and is safely used in 90 countries.
  But the Trump administration has decided: Well, we know better. We 
know better than the American Medical Association. We know better than 
the women of the country that have been using this medication safely. 
We know better than 90 other countries.
  And the President is putting forward nominees to the Federal bench, 
including ones I have recently questioned, with a demonstrated 
hostility to reproductive freedom.
  As if this wasn't enough, congressional Republicans are also seeking 
to pass a budget that would leave 1.1 million patients who rely on 
Planned Parenthood health centers for critical and lifesaving services 
like cancer screening, STI tests and treatment, and birth control, 
among other things, with nowhere to go.
  We are at a pivotal moment for women's rights in this country. Are we 
going to continue to move forward or are we going to be sent further 
back in time? Enough is enough.
  As my colleagues have made clear today, we refuse to back down. We

[[Page S3512]]

refuse to give up. We will not settle for a world in which our 
daughters and our granddaughters have fewer rights than their moms and 
fewer rights than their grandmas.
  We need to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade into law once and 
for all and guarantee the right to access care. That is why we must 
pass the Women's Health Protection Act--the first step in addressing 
the devastating reproductive healthcare crisis that Dobbs unleashed--
and keep fighting any effort to deprive women of the healthcare we need 
and deserve.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Mr. President, as I close out this time, I had 
written prepared remarks for my closing, but a word keeps ringing over 
and over in my head, and that word is ``freedom.'' As I stand here, why 
today is so important is because it is again another chip chipping at 
our freedoms.
  I stand here as a Black woman who has, in our history, knowledge of 
what it means for your bodily autonomy to be taken.
  I stand here, today, looking at a picture of my granddaughter, who I 
want to have the same rights that I had growing up.
  Today, we mark a 3-year anniversary, but we also have an opportunity 
to commit to what our future will look like.
  This very week, we potentially will see a bill on this floor that 
will again chip away--chip away--at healthcare, when we know that 40 
percent of the births in this country are through Medicaid; chip away 
at our rights.
  So I thank my colleagues for their powerful words today. I thank all 
of the advocates who came and spoke to us today, all of the individuals 
who are still fighting the good fight to make sure that we have the 
rights that we deserve.
  I will end with a story of an individual who I just met today. Her 
name is Nancy Davis, and she is a patient in Louisiana.
  She said:

       When I was 10 weeks pregnant, doctors informed me that my 
     baby had acrania, a rare condition that was fatal for my 
     baby, and dangerous for me.
       Naturally, I was heartbroken and scared, but I trusted that 
     I would receive the necessary medical treatment so that my 
     family and I could begin healing.
       Unfortunately, I was wrong.
       Just a few weeks before I received my diagnosis, the 
     Supreme Court issued the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's 
     Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating 
     the legal right to abortion.
       The fallout from that decision was fast, with states across 
     the country starting to enforce cruel and dangerous abortion 
     bans.
       My home state of Louisiana has some of the strictest 
     abortion laws in the country, and even though I needed to 
     terminate my pregnancy to protect my own health and safety, I 
     was told I could not receive care at the hospital in Baton 
     Rouge.
       Instead of being able to process the diagnosis and grieve 
     the loss of the pregnancy at home with my family, I had to 
     scramble to find a way out of Louisiana to access abortion 
     care.
       I found myself in a situation I never thought I would be 
     in, forced to travel 1,500 miles to get the care that I 
     needed and deserved.
       I experienced not only a denial of necessary medical care, 
     but a denial of compassion, and my right to make my own 
     decisions about my own health.
       I felt dehumanized and stripped of my most fundamental 
     rights.
       I knew what I needed to do to protect my health, and my 
     doctors agreed. But local lawmakers who will never know me or 
     understand my situation had the final say.
       The system failed me, and I am just as outraged today as I 
     was then.

  Today, let's turn that outrage into action. Spread the word about 
what is coming to this floor. Make sure that people stand up, use their 
voices, use this moment.
  Freedom. That is what this is about--freedom.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.