Abortion Rights
Floor Speech
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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, we are at a critical juncture for abortion rights in America.
Abortion is health care and a fundamental right. But, across the street from the Capitol, the Supreme Court appears ready to overturn precedent to go after reproductive justice. June Medical Services v. Russo is the first abortion case to be heard by anti-abortion Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. They could pave the way for states to ban abortion for 25 million people in the United States.
So, we are standing up. Because we will not be standing by.
Regardless of where they live or how much money they make, individuals deserve the right to control their own bodies and future, and to get the healthcare that they want and need. When women can make decisions about their own reproductive healthcare, including whether and when to have children, they have autonomy over their lives, and their economic security.
So, reproductive justice is about economic justice. That is what is under threat.
And, not just the courts. Opponents of abortion have launched a nationwide, full court press against abortion and women's health.
Last year, 300 bills were introduced across the U.S. to curb or ban abortion. Alabama passed an extreme and callous law that would force teenage survivors of rape and incest, as well as people of any age, to carry a pregnancy without their consent. Texas introduced a bill to make abortion a capital offense.
Then, there is the Trump-Pence administration. Its domestic gag rule insert Donald Trump and Mike Pence in between a woman and her doctor. More than four million women and men, including 45,000 in my state, go to Title X clinics for their health care services. Sixty percent of those women consider it their primary care. But, the domestic gag rule bans providers from even talking about abortion or abortion-related services with their patient, even if an abortion is medically necessary.
Americans want more health care, not less. And, abortion is safe and legal, and the law of the land.
So, as the chair of the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, I am proud to fight for women and families and for reproductive justice. In our House Labor-HHS bill, we fought to block the domestic gag rule. But the administration and the Senate Republicans stopped us. We are not giving up.
Instead, the Democratic Majority of the U.S. House of Representatives is fighting for reproductive justice. We have legislation such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee's EACH Woman Act. The Hyde Amendment is a discriminatory policy that makes access to abortion dependent on your income. That is wrong, and I oppose it. We will continue the fight and we will win that fight in the near term to ensure that women of color, low income women and all women are on equal footing, with regards to reproductive rights.
Making the decision to continue or end a pregnancy is a complex decision and a very personal one. Throughout their pregnancy, a person must be able to make health decisions that are best for their circumstances, including whether to end a pregnancy, without interference from politicians. President Trump does not get a veto.
The Supreme Court should not forget that. The American people, and the voters, will not.
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