May 20, 2024

Duckworth Joins Murray, Senate Democratic Women in Responding to New Senate Republican Legislation Pushing Anti-Abortion Propaganda, Collecting Data on Pregnant Women Through New Government Website

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and 10 of her colleagues in issuing the following statement in response to new legislation introduced by Senate Republicans that would create a new government-run website to collect data on pregnant women and direct them to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and other “resources” to pressure women into carrying pregnancies to term, no matter their circumstances.

“Americans don’t want the government to track, intimidate, and coerce pregnant women into carrying their pregnancies to term no matter their circumstances. Yet, Senate Republicans want to mandate the creation of an online federal database where women will be encouraged to register their pregnancies with the government in order to push them toward anti-abortion propaganda and dangerous crisis pregnancy centers—this tells us exactly how Republicans will weaponize the whole of government to restrict a woman’s freedom to choose and force them to stay pregnant no matter what,” wrote the Senators.

“Republican politicians refuse to accept that Americans just don’t want the government to be making deeply personal family planning decisions—and this legislation is going nowhere while Democrats have the majority in the Senate. Americans must be clear-eyed about the fact that if Donald Trump and Republicans take control, legislation like this is just one stop on the road to a nationwide abortion ban,” the Senators continued.

“Democrats are fighting to make sure that every woman has the right to make her own decisions about her pregnancy and her future, without interference from politicians—and we’re fighting to restore Roe v. Wade at the first opportunity we get,” concluded the Senators.

The legislation would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a new government-run website, pregnancy.gov, that pregnant women in America would be encouraged to visit and answer a series of questions to generate a list of pregnancy-related “resources” within their zip code. The legislation specifies that such “resources” would include information about the “risks” of abortion, “information on child development from the moment of conception,” scam abortion pill “reversal” services and other misinformation peddled by anti-abortion crisis-pregnancy centers—and would explicitly exclude any “entity, including its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors and clinics, that performs, induces, refers for, or counsels in favor of abortions.”

The website would also encourage users to provide their contact information, “which the Secretary may use to conduct outreach via phone or email to follow up with users”—meaning that pregnant women would be encouraged to provide data to a potential Trump administration and potentially allow a government bureaucrat to follow up with them about the status of their pregnancy. The legislation would also take steps to enshrine fetal personhood by requiring child support payments to start during pregnancy.

Along with Duckworth and Murray, the list of signers includes Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Laphonza Butler (D-CA).

Throughout her time in the Senate, Duckworth has made protecting reproductive freedom and expanding access to IVF top priorities in the face of Republicans’ anti-choice crusade. Duckworth is the author of the Access to Family Building Act and, in February, she led a group of Senate Democrats in calling for the bill’s passage through unanimous consent, only for Republican U.S. Senator of Mississippi Cindy Hyde-Smith to object and block Duckworth’s effort. This was the second time Senate Republicans blocked Duckworth-led legislation that would protect access to IVF nationwide. The Access to Family Building Act builds on previous legislation she introduced in 2022.

Duckworth was the first Senator to give birth while serving in office and had both of her children with the help of IVF. In 2018, she advocated for the Senate to change its rules so she could bring her infant onto the Senate floor.

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