Watch Senator Rosen’s full remarks HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – During a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) called out extreme abortion bans in anti-choice states that are putting women at risk, and pushed for passing the Women’s Health Protection Act to protect reproductive freedoms under federal law. In her remarks, Senator Rosen highlighted the story of Kate Cox, a working mother of two from Texas who was denied an abortion despite having a non-viable pregnancy that could put the life of the mother at risk. According to reports, this case is the first in 50 years when a court has dictated whether a woman can get an abortion.
Senator Rosen continues fighting back against efforts to restrict access to abortion in Nevada and nationwide. Senator Rosen helped introduce the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act to protect doctors and other health care professionals from being prosecuted for providing reproductive care to their patients. Senator Rosen also helped introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine Roe v. Wade in federal law.
Below are Senator Rosen’s floor remarks as delivered:
M. President,
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade – which protected a woman’s right to make decisions over her own body – we’ve heard countless heart-wrenching stories coming out of anti-choice states.
We’ve heard about the ten year old girl from Ohio who was raped and had to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion.
We’ve heard about the case of a 13 year-old girl from Mississippi who was also raped, but because of her state’s strict abortion ban, she had to give birth before even starting the 7th grade.
And now we have learned of yet another instance where anti-choice politicians have decided they know better than a woman and her doctors.
Kate Cox, well she’s a working mom from Texas. She and her husband are the young parents of two beautiful kids, ages one and three.
They love their children; they always wanted a large family, always wanted that. It’s why they were overjoyed when they learned that Kate was pregnant with their third child.
But sadly, tragically, during her pregnancy, the doctors told Kate that the baby girl she was carrying, that baby, had a fatal condition which meant she would not survive.
This was heartbreaking for Kate, for her husband, for her family, but for Kate as a woman, this was heartbreaking. And what should have been a moment of privacy for Kate and her family has turned into a public tragedy.
Because of Texas’s restrictive abortion ban, she was barred – barred – from terminating her non-viable pregnancy – even though doctors have said that continuing it would put her life in danger and – and – risk her ability to have future children, that large family her and her husband always dreamed of.
Instead, Kate was forced to go to court to fight for her own medical procedure, the procedure she needs to save her own life.
And right before the Texas Supreme Court ruled against her, Kate Cox, well she was forced to leave her home state of Texas in order to get the life-saving care she needs.
For the first time in 50 years, anti-choice judges have ruled whether or not a woman can have an abortion.
Can this really be happening, Madam President? Judges – A panel of judges deciding your healthcare.
What makes this all the more heartbreaking – when Roe was overturned – we all knew, we knew cases like this would happen.
And now, this is the terrifying reality women face in a post-Roe world… where lawyers and judges, they make the healthcare decisions, not your doctors, your health care providers.
And it’s been made possible, possible by decades of anti-choice extremists who have fought to put politicians – politicians, between women and their private medical decisions.
The abortion bans passed by anti-choice states are not only cruel, but also dangerous and life threatening to women like Kate.
Women who are already living through their worst nightmare of being told their baby has no chance to live, and then, then, they are prevented by from getting the life-saving care they need by a legal system. Instead of being able to listen to their doctors to save their lives, the legal system is in charge of their health care.
And it’s not just in Texas and it’s not just at the state level.
Last year, Senate Republicans introduced legislation in this very chamber to enact a nationwide abortion ban, a national abortion ban – one that would strip all women, in every state, including our state of Nevada, Madam President, of their fundamental right to control their own bodies.
A nationwide abortion ban would be devastating on a whole new level… It would mean more stories like Kate’s – except this time, this time, there would be nowhere for a woman to go to get the lifesaving care she needed.
And let’s be clear, if this happens, women will die…their children, if they have other children, will be left without a mother.
And this is exactly what anti-choice extremists want… Their latest attempt is to ban the abortion pill that women have been using safely for decades.
And just today, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear that case.
This is why we can’t give up – we can’t give up – we must continue to fight on to protect a woman’s right to choose, to make the decisions that are right for her and her family, in the privacy of her doctor’s office.
And as long as I’m here, I will oppose any efforts to enact a nationwide abortion ban… A ban that would punish women for making their own health care decisions.
And we must do more to protect women living in anti-choice states – women like Kate and the young girls from Mississippi and Ohio and states across this country…
That’s why I helped introduce legislation that protects women from prosecution by anti-choice states for crossing state lines to receive the reproductive care they need. We have to protect women from prosecution for getting the life-saving care they need.
This is why, this is why passing the Women’s Health Protection Act and protecting reproductive freedoms under federal law is critical.
If we fail to act, women will continue to suffer. Women will die.
We will not — We cannot — we cannot back away from the fight to protect women’s reproductive freedom.
And I will always stand with women, and I will always stand with our right to choose.
Thank you.
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