Senate Democrats hold a press briefing about reproductive rights.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning.
00:14Today we will hold a HELP Committee hearing on the ongoing damage caused by the Dobbs
00:19decision which Republicans in the Senate enabled and cheered, and the cruel Republican abortion
00:25bans that have now been passed in state after state over the past two years.
00:30As we will hear, the chaos, the fear, the heartbreak caused by extreme Republican abortion
00:37bans has only grown with each passing day.
00:41And we would like to say to any Republicans who are still in denial, this issue is not
00:46going away.
00:48It is the furthest thing from being settled.
00:51Women are not going to forget about the horrors they have been put through, and they're not
00:55going to accept a status quo where politicians control their most personal medical decisions.
01:03And we've seen that several times already.
01:06Every time abortion rights have been on the ballot over the past two years, abortion rights
01:11have won.
01:12That message here is clear, it is unambiguous, and we are going to make sure that Republicans
01:18do not ignore it.
01:20I hope Republicans will come today and listen to the testimonies of our witnesses.
01:26I hope they will truly take to heart the stories of women and providers whose lives have been
01:32turned upside down and irrevocably harmed by the abortion bans they championed and cleared
01:38the way for.
01:39The Senate Democrats are going to keep lifting up the voices of women who are bravely sharing
01:45their stories.
01:46We will keep shining a spotlight on the lives that have been wrecked by cruel Republican
01:51abortion bans, and Democrats will not rest until we restore abortion rights for all Americans
01:58by passing the Women Health Protection Act.
02:01With that, let me turn it over to Senator Hassan.
02:04Well, thank you, Senator Murray, and good morning, everybody.
02:11By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court took away a fundamental freedom for millions
02:17of Americans.
02:18And during the past few years, there's been a really concerted effort to ban abortion
02:23all across our country, including in my home state of New Hampshire.
02:27Tens of millions of American women now live in states where abortion is banned.
02:33Some of these bans have criminal penalties, both for women seeking an abortion and for
02:38their doctors who are providing critical care.
02:42We know that efforts to deny a woman's fundamental freedom won't stop there.
02:47The next move is to ban abortion nationwide.
02:51For those who suggest that these fears are unfounded, I would remind you that we were
02:57told that overturning Roe would never happen.
03:01But that's exactly what Supreme Court justices appointed by former President Trump did.
03:07So this is a really perilous moment.
03:10What is at stake is whether or not women will continue to be free and equal citizens in
03:17the United States of America, whether we believe that the Declaration of Independence promised
03:22that we're all created equal, which means equally able to make our own critical personal
03:29health care decisions, whether that includes our daughters as well.
03:35The world's greatest democracy cannot let the women of America become second-class
03:40citizens.
03:42We need to be clear-eyed about the dangers of this moment, speak out, and continue to
03:47do everything we can to safeguard freedom for America's women.
03:53And thank you.
03:54I'll now turn it over to Senator Smith.
03:56Well, thank you very much.
04:00Thanks to Senator Murray and to Senator Hassan for your leadership and your fight on this
04:03issue.
04:05So today, one in three women of childbearing age in this country live in states with a
04:10Trump Republican abortion ban.
04:13And every day, we are confronted with the great consequences that this has, that overturning
04:17Roe has had for Americans across the country.
04:20We're going to be hearing about some of these stories today in the HELP Committee.
04:23These are stories of women in situations that they never could have imagined that they would
04:28have to face, women trying to get reproductive health care and then being turned away, sometimes
04:33until their condition is life-threatening, doctors that are trying to provide the health
04:38care that they know is best for their patients, but they can't for fear of prosecution.
04:44The reality is that the Dobbs decision has thrown women's health care into chaos.
04:49And we need to remember that this chaos didn't just happen.
04:52It happened because Trump and his Republican Party did not trust women.
04:56They believe at their core that politicians and judges should have the power to make decisions
05:01for women whose lives and stories they'll never know.
05:05Trump and Republicans in the Senate and the judges that they appointed are responsible
05:09for overturning Roe, and they are responsible for the cruelty and the chaos that has ensued
05:14since.
05:15They are responsible for the fact that one in three women of childbearing age can't make
05:20their own personal health care decisions.
05:23You know, when I worked at Planned Parenthood, I realized, I saw every single day women walk
05:27through the doors of our clinic for an unplanned pregnancy, for access to contraception.
05:33For whatever reason, they walked through those doors.
05:35It wasn't political.
05:36It was personal.
05:38American women do not want any of us making their decisions for them about their bodies
05:43and their lives and their families.
05:45And to those of you, to those of our Republican colleagues who are going to be at the committee
05:50hearing today, who are working to strip away these freedoms, I ask you to ask yourself,
05:56why do you think that you know better than these women whose lives and stories you will
06:00never know?
06:02This is a matter of personal freedom and autonomy.
06:05It's about respect for people and their capacity to make their own decisions.
06:09And as Senator Murray said, this is not something that women are just going to get over or forget
06:13about.
06:14It is about their lives and about their daughters' lives.
06:17Fundamental reality here is that Democrats trust women and that this week we will be
06:21showing America that women can trust us to defend their rights and their freedom, to
06:26make choices about their own health care and their own bodies and their own lives.
06:32With that, we'll take a couple of questions and then we're going to head to the hearing.
06:37Yes.
06:38Have you heard anything from any Senate Republicans that will push to focus on reproductive rights?
06:47Have you heard anything?
06:48I have not heard anything from Republicans in general.
06:51We are taking up the women's right to contraception tomorrow.
06:54There will be a vote on the floor.
06:55We'll hear from them then.
06:56Do you think that this strategy is effective to put up these bills that likely won't pass?
07:03Well, you don't pass anything that you don't try to pass.
07:06We're going to put it up on the floor and we're going to hope that it will pass.
07:10And I believe that the American people want to know what's at stake here and what we're
07:15fighting for.
07:16Certainly access to contraception, certainly to the Women's Health Protective Act.
07:20These are things that we are putting up and working to try and get passed.
07:24Others?
07:25All right.
07:26Thank you all very much.
07:27Thank you all very much.
07:31Have a good hearing.
07:32Yep.
07:33Yep.
07:34Yep.
07:35Yep.
07:36Yep.
07:37Yep.
07:38Yep.
07:39Yep.
07:40Yep.
07:41Yep.
07:42Yep.