At Hearing, Warren Warns of Threats to Reproductive Freedom by Trump and Right-Wing Extremists, Implications for the Health, Safety, and Security of Women Nationwide
Warren: “I am furious that millions of women have lost fundamental rights. I am furious that their freedom to make their own decisions has been taken away by a small number of extremists. I am alarmed by what the radical Supreme Court and congressional Republicans are prepared to do to unravel (these rights further) under a future Trump presidency.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, delivered opening remarks for a hearing focused on efforts by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to respond to threats against reproductive freedom. This follows the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and right-wing attacks on medication abortion, fertility treatment, and contraception.
The full text of Senator Warren’s opening remarks are available below:
Opening Statement
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy: The Economic and Health Impacts of Threats to Reproductive Rights
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
As Delivered
Senator Warren: We're holding this hearing because reproductive freedom, even here in Massachusetts, may disappear.
In 2022, far-right Supreme Court justices took away the constitutional right to an abortion, completing the job that Donald Trump sent them there to do. In overturning Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court abandoned almost 50 years of precedent. In some states, the court's decision revived abortion bans that had lain dormant since the 19th century. In other states, the decision triggered new abortion restrictions pre-written to go into effect the day that Roe vs. Wade was overturned.
The results have been horrifying.
A 10-year-old rape survivor was forced to leave her state to get the abortion she needed. Pregnant women have been turned away from emergency rooms and forced to wait until they are even closer to the brink of death before doctors will treat them. And nearly one in five patients have been forced to cross state lines for abortion care.
As other states race to ban or significantly restrict women's reproductive rights, Massachusetts moved in the opposite direction. Our Commonwealth stepped up to protect reproductive freedom.
In 2022, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a novel “shield law” to protect abortion providers in Massachusetts from out-of-state legal actions when they provide care to people residing in states with abortion bans.
In 2023, Attorney General Campbell set up an abortion legal hotline. Also last year, after a federal court ruling in Texas that temporarily blocked the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, Governor Healey issued an executive order protecting medication abortion and initiating a process to stockpile the drug.
Our Commonwealth is working hard to protect reproductive rights. And the Biden administration is using every tool it has to defend women's freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. But recent legal challenges are a reminder that these safeguards will not be enough to protect women from right-wing politicians who are determined to rip away their reproductive freedom, no matter where they live.
First, whether a doctor is legally allowed to protect your health is on the docket. This year the Supreme Court will decide whether Idaho's total abortion ban prohibits doctors from providing quote, “stabilizing treatment” close quote, to patients who require an emergency abortion– in violation of federal law protecting access to emergency treatment. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Idaho, you can bet that Republicans in Congress will try to make these restrictions the law of the land.
In another case before the Supreme Court, Republicans have asked judges to review steps the FDA took to expand access to abortion medication mifepristone. Republicans understand that medication abortion now accounts for nearly two thirds of abortions nationwide, and they are willing to take down the entire drug regulatory system in order to curb access to this FDA-approved medication. If the Supreme Court rolls back these policies, no one will be able to access medication abortion over telehealth or at their local pharmacy, no matter where you live– in Alabama, or Massachusetts, or any other state in the U.S.
These two challenges to abortion rights are in Trump's Supreme Court, but there are other threats as well. Republicans intend to put in place a nationwide abortion ban. There is already a bill in the House of Representatives, “The Life at Conception Act,” that has the support of the majority of the Republican caucus, including Speaker Mike Johnson. This bill would create something called “fetal personhood,” requiring full legal protection for any fertilized egg, outlawing abortion, and IVF, and possibly some contraception.
But a future Trump administration doesn't even need Congress to enact a nationwide ban. The Heritage Foundation is calling for enforcement of a 19th century law that criminalizes the mailing of anything quote, “designed or intended for procuring an abortion.” Now to be clear, many lawyers think this law is unenforceable, but that will not stop Donald Trump from intentionally misapplying the law to get the results his extremist base wants. And it will not stop radical courts from letting him do exactly that.
If they succeed, these efforts won't be limited to the states where abortion is already restricted. They will be used to block abortion everywhere, including right here in Massachusetts.
I am furious that millions of women have lost fundamental rights. I am furious that their freedom to make their own decisions has been taken away by a small number of extremists. I am alarmed by what the radical Supreme Court and congressional Republicans are prepared to do to unravel under a future Trump presidency. And that is why we are holding this hearing today: to hear firsthand about the impact of these threats, and to discuss what we can do to fight back.
With that, I want to pause and ask my good partner in all kinds of trouble, Senator Markey, if you would like to make some opening remarks.
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