During a Senate Health Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) questioned witnesses about the impact of abortion bans on women having miscarriages and doctors trying to do their jobs and about access to contraception.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Hassen.
00:01Well, thank you very much, Senator Murray, and to the Chair and Ranking Member Cassidy,
00:08thank you for this hearing, and to all of the witnesses, thank you for being here today.
00:12I've received thousands of messages from constituents in New Hampshire urging me to protect reproductive
00:18freedom since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
00:22On that day, the women of America lost a fundamental freedom.
00:26Every woman should have the right to control her own life, and that includes the right
00:29to make her own health care decisions.
00:31And with deep respect for my colleagues on the other side of the dais, women know what
00:37a pregnancy is.
00:39I, too, in response to Senator Mullen, I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks in a pregnancy between
00:47the birth of my son and the birth of my daughter.
00:50It was as devastating for me and my husband and our family as Senator Mullen described
00:57the devastation that he and his family experienced.
01:00So right now, though, women are facing a danger in our country that is real and it is grave,
01:07and that includes women like one of my constituents who was carrying twins and discovered in the
01:14third trimester that one of the twins could prove fatal to the other.
01:19Now think about the decision that she and her physicians had to make as they grappled
01:26with this very rare, very difficult medical challenge, and the impact of the abortion
01:32ban in New Hampshire on her and her physician as they tried to figure out what to do.
01:38So a few questions.
01:40Dr. Linton, abortion bans are impacting multiple facets of women's health care.
01:46Miscarriage is common, and as we've just talked about, it can be devastating.
01:49One in five pregnancies in the United States results in miscarriage.
01:53In places where abortion bans are in place, some women experiencing miscarriages who need
01:58immediate medical attention are being denied the health care that they need because doctors
02:03fear criminal penalties if they treat these women.
02:06So can you discuss how abortion bans are jeopardizing the health of women who are having miscarriages?
02:11Thank you for that question.
02:12Yes, I think that it goes back again to this idea of confusion.
02:16These laws are not written by physicians.
02:19Many of them are written before the era of modern medicine, before we had ultrasounds
02:23and modern diagnoses that we use today.
02:25So asking a physician to interpret a law not only through a medical lens but through a
02:29modern lens can be very difficult.
02:31We are physicians.
02:32We are not lawyers.
02:33We did not go to medical school to make very intricate legal decisions.
02:37And so as much as sometimes I obviously my biggest concern is for the patient in that
02:42situation, and yet at the same time I can't necessarily blame the physician for having
02:47this fear over confusion of whether or not they can provide care.
02:51We need to focus on letting physicians make medical decisions to be able to care for the
02:55patients in front of them.
02:56Thank you.
02:57Dr. Verma, abortion bans and restrictions are even making it harder for women to get
03:02prenatal care that supports the well-being of women and their babies.
03:06It's harder than ever to recruit obstetricians, as you all have talked about, gynecologists,
03:10to practice in rural areas across the country, especially once you factor in abortion bans,
03:16including those that could put doctors and their patients in jail.
03:19Dr. Verma, what is the impact of abortion bans on doctors who are trying to do their
03:24jobs?
03:25In particular, how are these bans limiting women's access to care in rural areas?
03:29Absolutely.
03:30Thank you for that question.
03:32I even pre-DOBS was seeing patients in Georgia that were traveling significant distances
03:38to get to a hospital where they could get prenatal care, to get to a doctor who took
03:42Medicaid if that is their insurance.
03:45And so there are multiple barriers that women are already facing.
03:49What we're seeing is as more doctors leave these states because of abortion bans, those
03:56distances that patients are having to travel are getting further and further.
04:01And patients are also scared.
04:02One of the things I do in my practice is I do preconception counseling visits, where
04:06I sit down with a patient who wants to get pregnant and talk to them about how to optimize
04:11that pregnancy.
04:12So starting a prenatal vitamin, getting off any medications that are dangerous for the
04:16pregnancy.
04:17And since DOBS, I'm hearing again and again patients are asking, what happens if I get
04:21pregnant and something goes wrong?
04:23And these are patients with desired pregnancies.
04:25They are so afraid that something is going to go wrong and they won't be able to get
04:30the care that they need.
04:31And it's affecting people's decisions about whether to expand their family, even if that's
04:36something they want.
04:37Absolutely.
04:38Thank you.
04:40I am almost out of time, so a quick question for Ms. Lopez.
04:44Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, it's more critical now than ever that women can access
04:48contraception.
04:49Most forms of health insurance cover birth control.
04:51However, there are nearly one million women of reproductive age who are enrolled in Medicare
04:56because of a disability.
04:58And they don't have guaranteed access to contraception.
05:01I'm working on a bill that will close this contraception coverage gap by requiring Medicare
05:06to cover all forms of contraception, allowing women with disabilities to get the type of
05:11contraception they want and need.
05:12Can you speak to the importance of requiring Medicare to cover contraception?
05:16Yeah.
05:17Thank you.
05:18And thank you for your championship of that legislation.
05:19Yeah.
05:20It's critical for all people who can become pregnant to have access to contraception so
05:24that they can plan their families appropriately, so that they can determine if, when, and how
05:28they want to start a family.
05:29And that includes folks on the margins, including disabled people.
05:33So thank you again.
05:34Thank you very much.
05:35Thank you.