June 18, 2024

Duckworth Underscores Need to Protect Reproductive Rights Amid Republican Attacks

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C] – Today, U.S. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) called out Republicans’ hypocrisy and cruelty as millions of Americans continue to be rightfully worried about access to reproductive health care, including IVF which so many Americans rely on to start or grow their families. Duckworth’s remarks were made at a press conference ahead of the 2nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, where she was joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Each Senator highlighted how a second Trump administration, if elected, would wage an all-out assault on reproductive rights and abortion access in every state, beginning on Day One. A video of the Senator’s remarks is available on YouTube.

Key Quotes:

  • “Just last Thursday, my Republican colleagues blocked my Right to IVF Act... If Republicans actually cared as much about protecting IVF as they do about protecting Donald Trump's ego, this would have been a simple yes vote. If they actually wanted to find a real fix to this crisis that countless Americans are facing, they would have joined me in passing this obvious solution.”
  • “As GOP legislatures, courts and the extremists at Project 2025 have made all too clear, this threat is already a real-life nightmare for countless women…who remain unsure whether living in a red state under a Trump presidency could mean getting jail time for committing the supposed sin of needing modern medicine to bring into the world a baby whose nose to wipe and diaper to change.”
  • “As a mom who struggled with infertility and needed IVF to have my two little girls, all I can say to my Republican colleagues in this moment is ‘how dare you.’ And I wish you luck as you try to excuse your hypocrisy to every one of your constituents back home who are facing the heart wrenching struggle of trying to have their own little girl, boy to cuddle and love, who are terrified that your blind loyalty to Trump may have just snatched that dream away from them.”

 

Remarks as prepared are below:

Hello, everyone. 

You know, as we prepare to mark the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, I find myself somehow getting even a little more mad, a little more disgusted, every day.

We don’t even need to go back two years. We can go back two months. Two weeks. Two session days, and the hypocrisy, the misogyny, the GOP will be on full display.

For months now, Republicans have been running to cable news shows, telling every camera in sight that—just like their ringmaster Donald Trump—no one cares more about women more than they do! 

That no one cares more about defending our rights than they do!

And that all they want in this scary post-Alabama ruling reality is to defend Americans’ access to IVF.

But anyone who is paying attention knows that that’s a flat-out lie.

Just last Thursday, my Republican colleagues blocked my Right to IVF Act, which would have enshrined into law the simple standard that no hopeful parent or doctor can be criminalized for IVF.

If Republicans actually cared as much about protecting IVF as they do about protecting Donald Trump’s ego, this would have been a simple yes vote.

If they actually wanted to find a real fix to this crisis that countless Americans are facing, they would have joined me in passing this obvious solution.

Because the threat to IVF isn’t some far-fetched hypothetical.

As GOP legislatures, courts and the extremists at Project 2025 have made all too clear, this threat is already a real-life nightmare for countless women who are now forced to live in fear that Republican success come November would even further imperil their right to try to create a family.

It’s already a real-life nightmare for countless hopeful-moms who remain unsure whether living in a red state under a Trump presidency could mean getting jail time for committing the supposed sin of needing modern medicine to bring into the world a baby whose nose to wipe and diaper to change.

When someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them. That’s how the saying goes.

Well, Republicans have showed us who they are one, two three, four thousand times.

When the rubber meets the road, and we ask not just for empty words on Twitter but for their vote, they won’t lift a finger to protect women in this country.

As a mom who struggled with infertility and needed IVF to have my two little girls, all I can say to my Republican colleagues in this moment is how dare you.

How dare you.

And I wish you luck as you try to excuse your hypocrisy to every one of your constituents back home who are facing the heart-wrenching struggle of trying to have their own little girl or boy to swaddle and cuddle and love and who are terrified that your blind loyalty to Trump may have just snatched that dream away from them.

Shame on you.

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