‘Imagine The Cruelty’: Diana DeGette Decries Impact Of Dobbs Decision

5 months ago

During a press conference last week, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) spoke about the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision.

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Transcript

00:00To our woman warrior, Diana DeGette.

00:03Thank you.

00:09Thank you so much, Barbara.

00:11Well, as you've heard, it was two years ago today

00:15when the Supreme Court, for the first time in our nation's history,

00:19took away a freedom that all Americans have.

00:23And the results were swift, and they were devastating.

00:28Twenty-one states have banned or severely restricted abortion.

00:34And those laws took effect the very next day after the Dobbs decision.

00:40In Ohio, a young girl who had been the victim of rape

00:45had to be taken across state lines to get the health care that she needed.

00:50In Texas, as you heard, a woman was sent home

00:56because the doctor was afraid of criminal prosecution.

01:00And she almost died from sepsis

01:03before she could get the health care that she needed.

01:06I just saw the reports this week of the birth rates and the infant mortality,

01:12which have gone up since the Dobbs decision, up since the Dobbs decision.

01:18Imagine the cruelty, and imagine the impact on countless Americans.

01:27One in three women, and more than half of black women in this country,

01:33live in states where they don't have access to abortions.

01:37And as states enact new and tighten existing restrictions,

01:41and as the impacts of these cruel laws grow,

01:44more and more Americans are being forced to leave their homes,

01:49to somehow take leave from their jobs,

01:52and flee their states to get the care they need.

01:55And that's just the people who can afford to do that.

01:58Everybody else, too bad for them.

02:02And these draconian states' laws, they don't just affect states like Texas.

02:10They affect states like Colorado, my home state,

02:13where abortions have gone up by three times,

02:17and where Coloradans have to wait, along with everybody else,

02:21to get the health care they need.

02:24So what have the House Republicans done to alleviate this problem?

02:29They refused to take up the Women's Health Protection Act.

02:33But not only that, 187 members of the House Republican caucus

02:42have co-sponsored legislation that says that personhood begins

02:49when the egg and the sperm meet,

02:52giving those fetuses the same rights from conception that all of us have today.

03:01What would that mean if that became law, that 187 of them have sponsored?

03:06It would mean that all abortions, no exceptions from day one, would be banned.

03:13It would mean that in vitro fertilization would be banned.

03:20It would mean that many common forms of birth control would be banned.

03:26And it would mean that life-saving stem cell research would be banned.

03:32I am not exaggerating. I am not exaggerating.

03:37This is the agenda of the far right-wing extreme House majority.

03:43They don't really want to talk about it right now,

03:45because they realize that the vast majority of Americans

03:50and the vast majority of their constituents oppose these extreme laws.

03:56But make no mistake, if they keep the House, if they take the Senate,

04:02and if Donald Trump wins the White House,

04:04this is exactly the far right majority that will enact these laws.

04:12We simply cannot let this happen on behalf of the American people,

04:18and we will not let it happen.

04:20One of the first bills we will pass in Congress,

04:23when we take the majority and Hakeem Jeffries becomes the next speaker,

04:27is the Women's Health Protection Act.

04:30And we will restore freedom for all Americans to make their own health care decisions,

04:40including abortion, for everybody in every state in this country,

04:45because that's the way we do it in America.

04:48I'm now pleased to introduce the primary sponsor of the Women's Health Protection Act,

04:53another fierce warrior for choice, Congresswoman Judy Chu.

‘Imagine The Cruelty’: Diana DeGette Decries Impact Of Dobbs Decision

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