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[Pages H1499-H1500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CALL FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend and sister in
service, Representative Tlaib, for cohosting this special session with
me this evening to discuss the critical issue of reproductive justice
in our country.
As chair of the Abortion Rights and Access Task Force in this first-
ever pro-choice majority Congress, I am proud to join my colleagues
tonight as we stand up and push back against these unprecedented,
coordinated attacks on our collective reproductive rights and
liberties.
You see, Mr. Speaker, the stakes could not be any higher. Since 2011,
anti-choice politicians have pushed a wave of nearly 450 restrictive
laws through State legislatures and now all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Over the last year alone, they have enacted 25 bans across
dozens of States, pushing comprehensive reproductive healthcare,
including abortion care, further and further out of reach.
They are working overtime to peddle harmful misconceptions and to
legislate abortion out of existence.
As a result, reproductive health facilities have been forced to shut
their doors, forcing individuals to travel across State lines, shoulder
additional financial burdens, and jump through unnecessary and
humiliating hoops just to access comprehensive care.
[[Page H1500]]
Just this morning, I, along with several of my House colleagues,
marched to the Supreme Court to stand in solidarity with the justice
warriors who are on the front lines, fighting for our collective
humanity because, today, the Supreme Court begins deliberations on the
constitutionality of a Louisiana State law that, if upheld by the
Court, would literally shut down every abortion clinic across the State
except for one.
To put this further into perspective, Mr. Speaker, this could leave
just one doctor to provide abortion care for nearly 1 million
individuals of reproductive age across the entire State.
If Louisiana's clinic shutdown law takes effect, it will not only
decimate abortion access in Louisiana, but it will further embolden
State legislatures around the country to do the same.
Additionally, this law is literally identical to the Texas law struck
down by the Court just 3 years ago in the Whole Woman's Health case.
Since the Texas case, the facts certainly haven't changed. The
precedent certainly hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is
the makeup of the Supreme Court, a court that is now filled with judges
who want to strip us of our bodily autonomy.
Laws that restrict reproductive freedom undermine the very nature of
equality and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable among us.
Every person, every individual, regardless of income, sexual
orientation, or gender identity, deserves equitable access to
comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including queer, trans, and
nonbinary individuals. As I often say, people don't live in checked
boxes; we live in nuance and intersectionality.
Abortion is healthcare. Reproductive justice is economic justice.
Reproductive justice is racial justice.
Mr. Speaker, the stakes are high. Our fundamental human rights and
liberties are not and should not be up for debate.
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I am proud to stand here on the floor today to remind the courts that
Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land and that the days of the Hyde
amendment are numbered and that we stand with our partners in
community, the organizers and resisters who are fighting day in and day
out to ensure that every person has the right to self-determination
over their reproductive health.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________