Senator Murray Fights Back Against Republicans’ National Abortion Ban
Senator Murray: “This bill shows the true Republican position: they want to ban abortion—for everyone. In every single state.”
***WATCH SENATOR MURRAY’S FLOOR SPEECH HERE***
(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, took to the Senate floor to fight back against the Republican national abortion ban introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) yesterday. In the speech, Senator Murray promised to fight this bill every step of the way and to stand up for everyone’s right to control their own bodies and make their own medical decisions.
“This bill shows the true Republican position: they want to ban abortion—for everyone. In every single state. And they want to punish doctors. They want to put them in prison for doing their jobs,” said Senator Murray. “So to anyone who lives in a blue state, like mine—anyone who thinks they are safe from these attacks here is the painful reality: Republicans are coming for your rights.”
“So here’s my message to Republicans: If you want to go after my constituents’ rights, if you want to go after women’s bodies and futures, if you want to pass a national abortion ban, like this extreme bill, you are going to have to go through me,” continued Senator Murray. “Because Democrats are going to keep standing up for women and men across the country who do not want their rights taken away.”
Senator Murray has been fighting to defend the right to abortion since she first got into politics, and she continues to fight every day for the needs of patients across the country. Just yesterday, she led 29 of her colleagues in calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to take immediate action to safeguard women’s privacy and their ability to safely and confidentially get the health care they need. Senator Murray immediately put out a statement following the introduction of Republicans’ national abortion ban yesterday and joined her colleagues to speak out following Senator Graham’s press conference.
Every week since Roe was overturned, Senator Murray has fought to pass key protections to safeguard Americans’ reproductive rights—pushing to advance commonsense legislation to protect the right to contraception, protect every American’s right to travel, protect doctors’ right to provide legal abortion care, and expand our national family planning program. But at every turn, Senate Republicans stood in the way, blocking every single bill.
Senator Murray’s floor speech, as prepared for delivery, is below:
“Thank you, M. President.
“Yesterday, my Republican colleagues introduced a national abortion ban and made clear they are coming after the rights of my constituents and they are coming after the rights of people across the country.
“This atrocious bill threatens the people of Kansas—who just voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights, the hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan who just signed a petition for a referendum vote to protect abortion and states like mine which already have strong abortion protections on the books.
“Up to now, Republicans have tried to play down their abortion extremism.
“They’ve tried to run away from the consequences of their extreme agenda— Even as patients have been denied prescriptions they need. Even as doctors have been forced to wait until patients’ lives are in danger before they can take action. Even as the health care crises they have caused spill across state lines to disastrous effect. But despite their empty rhetoric about ‘leaving it to the states’ the truth has been painfully clear—they think they know better than women when it comes to reproductive health care decisions.
“They have shown again and again they don’t trust women to have full control over their own bodies, and they are willing to go after doctors.
“They have blocked the most basic bills like Senator Cortez Masto’s bill making sure people can still travel to other states for legally available care and my bill making sure doctors in states where abortion is legal can’t be punished for doing their jobs. Over and over they have stood in the way of Democrats’ efforts to protect women’s abortion rights and it is crystal clear why.
“This bill shows the true Republican position:
“They want to ban abortion—for everyone. In every single state.
“And they want to punish doctors. They want to put them in prison for doing their jobs.
“So to anyone who lives in a blue state, like mine—anyone who thinks they are safe from these attacks here is the painful reality: Republicans are coming for your rights.
“And you don’t have to take my word for it: the Senator from South Carolina said yesterday, and I quote, “If we take back the House and the Senate—I can assure you we will have a vote on our bill.”
“There it is. Couldn’t be clearer.
“This is the MAGA agenda. For all fifty states rights stripped away and doctors in prison.
“Regardless of your circumstances regardless of what’s best for your health regardless of your family plans—of your hopes, fears, or dreams for your future. Republicans want to control your most decisions.
“They don’t trust you to have full control over your own body.
“It’s just horrifying.
“And M. President—when he unveiled this bill yesterday, the Senator from South Carolina also said, and I quote: “I’ll make a prediction: we stay on this and we keep talking about it, maybe less than a decade from now, this will be law.”
“This is the future they want—a national abortion ban.
“Well let me tell you something—the Senator from South Carolina may not have been paying attention—but Democrats are already talking about this issue every week, every day, every opportunity. And women across the country have been with us: fighting for the right to abortion and fighting back against Republicans’ harmful attacks.
“We saw it in Kansas, we are seeing it in Michigan, and I am seeing it everywhere I go in Washington state.
“I have been talking to doctors, patients, and women and men across the country.
“And they are outraged—outraged—that Republicans want to take away their rights, that Republicans want to put their doctors in prison.
“And I am too. I’ve never been madder.
“So here’s my message to Republicans:
“If you want to go after my constituents’ rights, if you want to go after women’s bodies and futures, if you want to pass a national abortion ban, like this extreme bill, you are going to have to go through me.
“Because Democrats are going to keep standing up for women and men across the country who do not want their rights taken away.”
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