On Senate Floor, Duckworth Defends Women’s Right to Choose and Calls on Colleagues to Codify Roe v. Wade
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor to emphasize to her colleagues the need to support basic rights and empower women across the country by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade. During her speech, Duckworth also shared how Roe v. Wade has impacted her journey to motherhood, as well as highlighted why overturning the precedent could have devastating effects for our nation. Duckworth’s floor speech, which comes after reports that a majority of the Supreme Court support an initial opinion that would effectively overturn Roe v. Wade, is another example of Duckworth’s strong and consistent support of women’s constitutional right to choose. Video of the Senator’s speech is available here.
Key quotes:
“When Roe was decided in 1973, it changed the lives of so many women. It saved the lives of 14-year-olds who were the victims of rape or incest, who otherwise would have had to turn to back alleys and backrooms. It changed the lives of women who desperately wanted to be moms—but who found out that their pregnancies weren’t viable... that they'd have to go through the pain and suffering and trauma of a full term, only to stillborn at the end of nine months. And, personally, for me, it gave me my chance to be a mom.”
“Yet last week, we learned that the Supreme Court could be just weeks away from overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey… a decision that, if made final, would strip away reproductive rights for millions of women… forcing them to potentially live through the horrors and indignities that their grandmothers bore if they need reproductive care.”
“…We can do more. We have to do more. We must. Congress itself has the power. We have the ability to vote tomorrow to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade, once and for all. Because let me be clear: Women seeking care should not be ashamed. The people who should feel shame are those forcing these women to live through unnecessary pain and suffering…And I’ll be damned if I let my daughters grow up in a country that gives them fewer rights than their mom had.”
Duckworth’s full remarks as delivered below:
My older daughter, Abigail, is seven.
She's generous, silly, and so, so smart. She calls herself a “maker-kid” and dreams of being an engineer or an army nurse—but definitely not a helicopter pilot.
My younger daughter, Maile, just turned four.
Her laugh is contagious, and early on during the pandemic when I was mostly working from home she proved she was truly her mother's daughter by starting to pull pranks…
Including grabbing my phone and, oopsies, hanging up on whoever was on the other line when I was trying to conduct a meeting or review some legislation instead of playing with her.
But Abigail and Maile might not be here today if it weren't for the basic reproductive rights Americans have relied on for nearly 50 years.
When Roe was decided in 1973, it changed the lives of so many women.
It saved the lives of 14-year-olds who were the victims of rape or incest, who otherwise would have had to turn to back alleys and backrooms.
It changed the lives of women who desperately wanted to be moms—but who found out that their pregnancies weren’t viable... that they'd have to go through the pain and suffering and trauma of a full term, only to stillborn at the end of nine months.
And, personally, for me, it gave me my chance to be a mom.
For I never would’ve had my creative, silly, drive-me-crazy-yet-love-them-infinitely two daughters if Roe hadn't paved the way for women to make their own healthcare decisions, as I was only able to get pregnant through IVF—a fertility process that Roe lays the foundation for.
Because of IVF, I get to experience all the joys of motherhood.
Because of reproductive rights, my husband and I aren’t just “Tammy and Bryan.” We’re “mommy and daddy.”
Because of Roe, and the rights and laws it protects, we are a family.
Yet last week, we learned that the Supreme Court could be just weeks away from overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey… a decision that, if made final, would strip away reproductive rights for millions of women… forcing them to potentially live through the horrors and indignities that their grandmothers bore if they need reproductive care.
And this would just be the start. For while the anti-choice movement has been working for years—decades—to get to this moment, overturning Roe is not their end-goal.
They want a national ban on abortion, something the Republican Senate Leader said was a possibility just last week.
They want to undermine access to contraception.
In some states, legislation has already been introduced that would make IVF a crime.
In Oklahoma, one woman was even convicted of manslaughter for having a miscarriage—a miscarriage.
Criminalized.
For having a miscarriage.
I’ve had a miscarriage, and there are no words to describe what mothers feel in that moment. For me, I was overcome with the rawest, most painful emotion I’d ever experienced.
In that moment, losing my baby felt more searing than anything I’d ever felt,
Yet if the GOP has their way, women may now have to live in fear that that worst moment of their lives may also send them to prison.
And if extremists get what they’re seeking, doctors who perform procedures such as dilation and cutterage to help grieving families who’ve lost a pregnancy might be at risk of going to jail, too…
Doctors like the one who, after my own miscarriage, conducted the D&C to clear out my uterus that allowed me to immediately continue my dream of having my desperately-wished-for second child… my beautiful rainbow baby… Maile.
So let’s be honest.
What’s happening is not about protecting life.
If the anti-choice movement truly wanted to protect life, they’d stop trying to strip away Americans’ healthcare.
They would be putting all of their efforts into addressing the growing maternal mortality crisis that has taken a tragic number of Black mothers’ lives.
They would be pushing for desperately needed policies that support parents like affordable childcare and paid parental leave.
If Republicans actually cared about being “pro-life,” they’d do something… anything… to stand up to the NRA.
So no. This isn’t about saving lives. This isn’t about looking out for families.
It’s about getting a slap on the back from their base and exerting even more control over women’s bodies.
It’s about deepening divides between the haves and the have-nots.
It’s about making it even harder to undo centuries of harm unleashed by systemic racism and economic injustice… systems under which women of color have suffered the most.
Look, I know that a lot of us are tired from the seemingly endless fight to protect our most basic human rights.
But we can do more. We have to do more. We must.
Congress itself has the power. We have the ability to vote tomorrow to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade, once and for all.
Because let me be clear: Women seeking care should not be ashamed.
The people who should feel shame are those forcing these women to live through unnecessary pain and suffering.
The people who should feel shame are those who claim to be pro-life, yet would let a mother die in childbirth for an unviable pregnancy… who refuse to expand Medicaid… who believe guns should be easy to get but basic healthcare impossible to find.
These are the people who should be ashamed.
These are the people who have no shame.
And I’ll be damned if I let my daughters grow up in a country that gives them fewer rights than their mom had.
So here I am today, fighting for a tomorrow that doesn’t look like our yesterday.
Because in that yesterday, those of us with uteruses were treated as second-class citizens.
And I didn’t learn to fly Black Hawk helicopters… go to war for our nation… nearly lose my life fighting for the rights enshrined in our constitution… only to come back home and have those same rights stripped away from the next generation of girls who simply want to be able to follow their own dreams, like I did mine.
To me, it comes down to this. Women should be allowed to make their healthcare decisions without Mitch McConnell’s voice or Brett Kavanaugh’s face haunting them at their OBGYN appointments.
So shame on those who want to take us back to the pre-Roe back alleys.
Shame on those who don’t dare regulate guns, but want to regulate our uteruses.
I will fight with everything I've got to keep us out of those back alleys…
Because it is the least that the women who came before us and fought for these rights deserve...
And it is the least that our own daughters need.
So enough with the hypocrisy...
Enough with the misogyny…
Enough some men in hallowed halls in D.C. arguing that they know better than women in Illinois or Arizona or Missouri.
We can—and we must—do better.
That means proving that we care about women every day of the year, not just on one Sunday in May.
That means codifying Roe now.
Let’s vote.
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