Pregnant Students' Rights Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Scott for his leadership and for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill because, among other reasons, the information that is required is incomplete and biased.

As written, the Pregnant Students' Rights Act is unfairly limited regarding the information it requires colleges to provide to students and the students it chooses to support. It does not include information about comprehensive family planning resources, and it only supports pregnant students who carry a baby to term.

Simply put, the bill fails to support any student with a different pregnancy-related outcome.

I, like my colleague from Georgia, had a wanted pregnancy. I was past the first trimester when I had an ultrasound, and the doctor said this was not viable, not a viable pregnancy, so they sent me to the hospital to have a procedure.

My colleagues might think that is terrible, but had I been in a post- Dobbs world or a State where that wasn't possible, I could have just been made to wait and risk my reproductive health. I went on to have two healthy children because I had that procedure.

The intent of this bill is clear, Mr. Speaker. It is clear from the text. It is clear from the debate. It is certainly clear from the timing. It is another attempt to have politicians interfere in the intensely personal decision of when and whether to have a child, a decision that should be made only by the pregnant student, not by Members of Congress.

In the wake of Dobbs, many States have prohibited or tried to prohibit healthcare providers and health plans from offering or covering certain reproductive healthcare services. These anti-abortion efforts have disproportionately harmed some students whose access to services and information is affected by their geographical barriers, depending on where they are in college.

Pregnant and parenting students deserve access to a full range of family planning resources and reproductive healthcare options that keep them healthy and on track for academic success, regardless of where they go to college.

For this reason, Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to the committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.

My amendment would make clear that institutions of higher education will also provide medically accurate and comprehensive information and resources about all reproductive healthcare services, including contraception and abortion rights.

The biased, anti-choice effort underpinning this bill will make it harder for students to make informed decisions about what is best for them. Promoting partisan legislation that fails to address the full healthcare needs of students does not promote academic success.

Again, Mr. Speaker, this is a decision that belongs to the pregnant student, not to Members of Congress.

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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