Mazie Hirono: 'Why Do The Republicans Have Such An Obsession About Controlling Women's Bodies?'

5 months ago

At a Senate Democratic press briefing on Tuesday, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) spoke about abortion and contraception.

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Transcript

00:00 >> Thank you.

00:03 We should all be asking, why do the Republicans have

00:10 such an obsession about controlling women's bodies?

00:14 So this month is almost two years since the disastrous Dobbs decision

00:21 and Dobbs wreaked chaos and havoc, but there is more to come.

00:27 Justice Thomas called for revisiting Griswold,

00:31 which is the 1965 case protecting the right to contraception.

00:36 And he pointed to the desire to revisit Griswold

00:41 in his concurrence to the Dobbs decision.

00:46 Excuse me.

00:48 Justice Alito respects his wife's right to, you know,

00:56 have a flag flying upside down, but he respects his wife's right

01:02 to do that apparently, but he doesn't give a rip

01:06 about telling millions of women in this country

01:09 that they have to have babies.

01:11 I said, what's with that?

01:13 And just this year, both of those justices suggested the Comstock Act,

01:19 a Civil War era law could be used to restrict access

01:24 to reproductive services in this country.

01:28 Republican states across the country have been blocking

01:31 or rolling back access to contraception.

01:34 Virginia's governor just vetoed a right

01:37 to contraception bill earlier this year.

01:41 Arizona Republicans blocked a similar bill in their legislature.

01:45 Oklahoma's legislature have advanced a bill that would ban access

01:50 to IUDs and other emergency contraceptives,

01:53 and the list goes on.

01:56 This abuse of power and control and Republicans' obsessions

02:00 with controlling women's body continues.

02:03 And we should ask, why is that?

02:07 So Democrats know women should make decisions

02:10 about their own bodies, and for myself.

02:14 One of the major reasons that I ran for office was my desire to make sure

02:21 that women had access to abortion, and we did.

02:24 For 50 years, I had a right, a constitutional right to abortion,

02:28 which this out-of-control Supreme Court majority just summarily

02:32 took away.

02:34 So our bill, the right to contraception bill, is very simple.

02:37 It says we have a right to contraception, and the providers

02:42 of contraception have a right to provide the contraception.

02:46 It would help ensure people across the healthcare dimension

02:50 that we will have access to the contraceptions, including IUDs

02:56 and other methods, Plan B and more.

02:59 It doesn't force anybody to use contraception.

03:03 It doesn't force anybody to provide contraception, but it's certainly

03:06 for those who want to have it, who want to allow it,

03:09 who want to provide it, will not be stopped

03:12 by either federal or state law to do that.

03:15 And tomorrow, there's going to be a vote on this bill,

03:18 and my question is will Republicans stand with the women

03:21 and families in this country or not?

03:24 Mahalo.

Mazie Hirono: 'Why Do The Republicans Have Such An Obsession About Controlling Women's Bodies?'

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Transcript

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