Tax Convention with Chile

Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, earlier this afternoon, my colleague Senator Markey asked unanimous consent to advance the Right to Contraception Act. There was an objection heard, but I wanted to come to the floor to voice my strong support as a cosponsor of the Right to Contraception Act.

Across the country, women are frightened. They are frightened that after decades of progress in advancing their rights and freedoms, they are watching an activist Supreme Court ignore precedent and strip away their rights and freedoms.

For nearly six decades, American women have come to rely on their right to control when and if they are going to have a family, including through the use of contraception. In fact, about 90 percent of women in the United States have used contraception.

In 1965, the Supreme Court correctly decided Griswold v. Connecticut, reaffirming that our Constitution guarantees the right to privacy. This particular case was over a Connecticut law that banned the use of contraception and imposed penalties, including up to 1 year in prison for doing so. The Supreme Court correctly overruled the law as an invasion of the right to privacy and determined that Americans could use contraception should they choose without government interference.

At the time, the majority opinion reasoned that there were many implied rights that Americans have within the Constitution. On a basic level, this is obvious. Not every single right we are due could be written into our Constitution. So this concept of ``implied rights'' is the foundation for various rights that Americans have come to rely on and, frankly, never think twice about, like the right to learn a foreign language or to travel across State lines or to live with your own family.

Famously, 8 years after Griswold was decided, the Supreme Court used a similar legal foundation--the constitutional right to privacy--to rightly decide in Roe v. Wade that women in the United States have the right to abortion care.

But, despite Roe being the law of the land for nearly 50 years and ``settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, entitled to respect under principles of stare decisis,'' according to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, it was thrown out the window.

This Saturday will mark the 1-year anniversary since this activist Supreme Court--crafted, of course, by anti-choice Republican politicians--stripped 22 million women and counting of their freedom to control their bodies, families, and futures; 1 year since women lost the right to an abortion nationwide; 1 year since women in my home State of Wisconsin were sent back to 1849--and I didn't misstate that, 1849--living under an archaic law that effectively criminalizes all abortion procedures; 1 year since women in America became second-class citizens.

Sadly, that fateful decision that overturned Roe v. Wade put more of Americans' rights on the chopping block.

In Justice Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion, he explicitly said that the rationale used to overturn Roe should be used to overturn cases establishing the right to contraception, the right to same-sex consensual relations, and same-sex marriage. Justice Thomas wrote that the Court ``should reconsider'' all three of these decisions, saying the Supreme Court had a duty to correct the error in these decisions.

He was essentially providing an open invitation to litigators across the country to bring their cases to the Court, inevitably instilling fear among millions of Americans.

Let that sink in.

With the right to abortion care already ripped away from tens of millions of Americans, a Supreme Court Justice essentially asked for someone to bring him a case so he could rip away one of the only tools many women have left to control if and when to have a family--that being having access to contraception.

Americans have spoken loudly and clearly that they do not believe that a woman's right to control her own body is an error or that the freedom for someone to love whom they love is an error. We cannot rely on an activist Supreme Court to protect our rights and freedoms. Congress must act.

So I stand here, with the backing of 9 in 10 Americans who support access to all forms of birth control, to call for the Senate to listen to our constituents and pass the Right to Contraception Act. Our legislation is simple and common sense. It would guarantee the legal right for individuals to get and use contraception, and it would stop politicians or the government from trying to get in the way, and that is it.

Americans want the right and freedom to control their own reproductive healthcare without interference from judges or politicians. In my home State of Wisconsin, where women are already living under an 1849 criminal abortion ban, access to contraception is absolutely essential. Every person should have the right to control their own bodies, families, and futures no matter where they live. Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who advocated for the right to privacy, called it ``the right to be left alone.''

So I stand here to reiterate this sentiment and to tell Washington to pass our legislation and give women the right to be left alone.

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