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Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today in support a woman's right to control her own body. Across the country, women have been stripped of the freedom to make their own decisions--decisions about their families, their health, and their futures. Judges and politicians have inserted themselves into exam rooms, telling doctors they cannot treat their patients, sometimes even if that treatment would save her life.

In my home State of Wisconsin, women lived for 15 months under a criminal abortion ban that was passed in 1849, a law on the books from 1 year after our statehood and 70 years before a woman won the right to vote. And while there were no women in the room when the statute was crafted, 2 years ago, Wisconsin women woke up to find their healthcare decisions would be dictated by a law that predates the Civil War. They woke up to find out that they now had fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers. That day began 15 months of confusion and chaos and heartbreak for families across Wisconsin.

We heard stories of women bleeding out from miscarriages, developing life-threatening infections, or being forced to carry unviable pregnancies until they could find an appointment out of State. For countless women, that meant driving hours, paying for lodging and childcare, and taking time off work just to make their own decisions about their own body.

Patients from every one of Wisconsin's 72 counties traveled to Illinois just to access healthcare, some traveling over 500 miles. Prior to the Dobbs decision, only one in six Wisconsin abortion patients received out-of- State care. During our criminal abortion ban, that number skyrocketed to 9 out of 10 patients seeking care out of State.

Those families were being forced to drive, on average, 103 minutes to exercise their right to control their own bodies and get the care they needed, nearly double the time that they drove to access care before Roe fell.

And I am talking here about women who could afford the more than $1,000 in costs to access that care. We must also be aware of those who could not. For example, patients traveling from out of State had to fork up an average of $330 just for lodging.

In 2023 alone, Illinois and Minnesota providers saw over 6,000 patients from Wisconsin. You heard me right. Six thousand Wisconsin women were forced to travel sometimes hundreds of miles just to access healthcare. And even though Wisconsin has restored access to abortion in three counties, Planned Parenthood of Illinois is still seeing three times as many patients from Wisconsin compared to before the Dobbs decision came down. The reality is that abortion care is still only available in 3 of our 72 counties.

Exercising this fundamental freedom is out of reach for far too many in America. Twenty-two States across the country have abortion bans, and that means one in three women of reproductive age live in a State where they cannot get the healthcare they need because politicians are telling them that they know better.

Well, women and families deserve better. That is why last year I introduced the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act to give millions of women without access to care in their home States a lifeline. This bill would ease the tremendous financial burden Republican abortion bans have placed squarely on women who are trying to access critical care. Women are spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to pay for travel, lodging, meals, and childcare just to make their own healthcare decisions.

These past 2 years we have heard shocking stories of women, often desperate for help, having nowhere to turn. Last week, we even heard the story of a woman who died because she was denied abortion care until it was too late.

If my colleagues insist that this issue is a decision for the States and not for women, then I hope that they can at least recognize the tremendous hardship their patchwork of laws has created.

The rights you have as an American should not depend upon what State you live in. If we cannot restore Roe this Congress, we should, at the very least, extend a lifeline to the millions of women who are unable to access care in their own communities.

2152, the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I am disappointed with the objection and will agree with the Senator on one point, which is that this bill does not fund abortion.

The Senator referred to democratically passed laws relating to this subject, and I just wanted to remind him once more what I said in my opening statement: In Wisconsin, women lived for 15 months under a criminal abortion ban that was passed in 1849--70 years before women had the right to vote, before the Civil War. Obviously women had no input in that democratically enacted law.

But this bill simply breaks down a barrier that Americans are facing to access sometimes lifesaving care, a financial barrier, I might add, that Republicans put up when they inserted themselves into our exam rooms and into women's personal decisions.

I hope my Republican colleagues understand that women take notice when you vote down bills that protect and defend their basic freedoms. They see who is fighting for their right to control their bodies, health, families, and future.

I am proud to be standing here today on their behalf. This issue is not going away. We are going to keep fighting day in and day out because women want their rights and freedoms back.

Some of my colleagues are claiming that this is merely a messaging bill. Well, send Americans the message that you support their decisions to make their own healthcare choices and pass this bill into law.

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