Senator
Murray made clear that President Trump’s decision to nominate Judge
Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court threatens the right to safe, legal
abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade
Senator Murray: “Roe,
and the rulings that have upheld it, make clear what women across the
country know at their core to be true—that reproductive freedom is
essential to a woman’s ability to control her future, plan her family,
and contribute to her community…”
Senator
Murray: “Let me say again that the threat to women’s reproductive rights
is frighteningly real. It is real because unless Democrats and
Republicans come together, President Trump will follow through on his
promise to overturn Roe”
Senator
Murray: “President Trump said that Roe is a 50-50 issue in the United
States. He’s wrong. People in our country—Democrats, Republicans, women
and men of all ages and backgrounds overwhelmingly understand that
abortion is a deeply personal decision, one our laws should allow women
to make, just as every American’s bodily autonomy should be their own
concern and not their government’s”
Senator
Murray: “I urge anyone—woman or man—who is concerned right now to make
that clear—loudly and immediately. If you have a story that shows why
reproductive rights matter in our country, share it. If you haven’t
signed up to vote—and told your friends to—do it”
***WATCH VIDEO OF SENATOR MURRAY’S SPEECH HERE***
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senator
Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate health committee and the
highest ranking woman in the U.S. Senate, took to the Senate floor to
outline her opposition to Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme
Court and raise the serious threat his nomination poses to women’s right
to safe, legal abortion by detailing Judge Kavanaugh’s record of
standing against women’s access to reproductive health care. Since
President Trump announced D.C. Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh as
his nominee to the Supreme Court on July 9th, Senator Murray has
expressed her vocal opposition to his nomination, citing President
Trump’s specific declarations to only appoint people to the Supreme
Court who passed his extreme, ideological test on overturning Roe v. Wade, undermining women’s reproductive care, and more.
Senator Murray has pledged to do everything in
her power to fight Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court,
and in her floor remarks called on women and men throughout the country
to take action and speak up about their opposition to Judge Kavanaugh.
Senator Murray also shared the stories of women from before and after Roe v. Wade to
illustrate the importance of the decision, and detailed how Judge
Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy and record align with President Trump’s
stated goal of nominating judges committed to overturning Roe v. Wade.
Key excerpts from Senator Murray’s remarks:
“When I was in college, a friend of mine—we
were very close and lived together in the dorms—went out on a date. She
was raped and got pregnant. She didn’t know where to get a safe
abortion—and she wasn’t wealthy, so she didn’t think she could afford it
either. The botched procedure she ended up having left her, at a very
young age, unable to bear children. I saw my friend hurt, frightened,
alone, and unable to get the care she needed because someone else’s
beliefs mattered more under our laws than her health and her future.
That impacted me a lot, and has stayed with me to this day.”
“Roe, and the rulings that have upheld it,
make clear what women across the country know at their core to be
true—that reproductive freedom is essential to a woman’s ability to
control her future, plan her family, and contribute to her community in
all the ways she may choose to—as these three women were able
to…reproductive freedom means women are more able to participate equally
and fully in our country.”
“When I examine the record and history of a
Supreme Court nominee, I hope to see a breadth of life experience, or
the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes. Judge Kavanaugh has not
demonstrated either of these qualities.”
“In expressing support for Justice
Rehnquist’s dissent in Roe, where the Justice argued for allowing
restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, Kavanaugh agreed with the
idea that if a right is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, it
must be ‘rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people.’ But he
made clear he does not believe a woman’s right to choose is rooted in
the traditions or the conscience of our people.”
“In one opinion, Judge Kavanaugh ruled to
allow the Trump Administration to block a pregnant seventeen year old
who arrived alone at our border from accessing an abortion until the
government could place her with a sponsor. He felt that she needed a
‘support network’ around her before she was capable of making this
decision, even though she had been seeking an abortion for months, and
had already met state-level requirements.”
“…women matter too. And they deserve a
Justice who accounts for their rights and liberties in his or her
decisions. Unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions indicate he will
not do so.” Instead, they display a fundamental lack of trust in women’s
ability to make their own health care decisions.”
“If an employer tries to deny his employee
affordable birth control because he thinks he knows better, or if a
politicized federal agency is physically detaining a young woman in
hopes it can impose its beliefs on her, or if a woman does not want to
carry her rapist’s child to term, our nation’s laws must affirm her
autonomy—because our laws are her place of last resort.”
“I urge anyone—woman or man—who is concerned
right now to make that clear—loudly and immediately. If you have a story
that shows why reproductive rights matter in our country, share it. If
you haven’t signed up to vote—and told your friends to—do it…one year
ago this week, three of my Republican colleagues stood with Democrats
and stopped President Trump’s effort to enact Trumpcare…That happened
because people across the country knew what was at stake and spoke
up—despite how long the odds seemed.”
Watch video of Senator Murray’s remarks HERE.
Full text of Senator Murray’s remarks:
“M. President, I want to start by sharing a
story that is very personal to me, and that has informed my work and
values ever since it happened.
“When I was in college, a friend of mine—we were
very close and lived together in the dorms—went out on a date. She was
raped and got pregnant. She didn’t know where to get a safe abortion—and
she wasn’t wealthy, so she didn’t think she could afford it either. The
botched procedure she ended up having left her, at a very young age,
unable to bear children.
“I saw my friend hurt, frightened, alone, and
unable to get the care she needed because someone else’s beliefs
mattered more under our laws than her health and her future. That
impacted me a lot, and has stayed with me to this day.
“Now let me tell you a few other stories.
“This is the story of a woman who I met just a
few weeks ago. When she was 23, fresh out college, she became pregnant
while living paycheck-to-paycheck in what she described as ‘an extremely
unhealthy and volatile relationship.’ She and her partner realized they
were not ready to be parents, and could not afford to raise a child.
They drove to a Planned Parenthood a few miles from her apartment. There
she was informed of her options, was treated with respect and kindness,
and got a safe, legal abortion. Today she is a writer and editor, and
the mother of an adorable little boy with another child on the way.
“Here is another story, M. President. This young
woman became pregnant in her first semester of college after a
contraceptive failure. Having a baby would not only have meant dropping
out of college, but returning to an abusive home. She was grateful to be
in New Jersey when this happened—where she could get an abortion
without a waiting period and where there are a number of providers. She
wrote that abortion access was ‘critical in allowing me to determine my
life path’ and in escaping the abusive household she’d grown up in.
“Finally, M. President, the story of a partner
at a major law firm, who is already the mother of a three-year old. She
was thrilled to find out she was pregnant with another child. But headed
into the sixth month of her pregnancy, she and her husband were told
that because of a rare heart defect, there was in the best case scenario
just a 10 percent chance of the pregnancy making it to term. There was a
less than one percent chance of their baby making it to his first
birthday—with no hope of a reasonable quality of life. Now—there is no
one right answer when it comes to decisions like these. Some women—some
families—choose one way, some another. But this woman and her husband
made the decision to end the pregnancy. It was their family—their
future—and her choice. She says she knows she did the right thing for
her and her family, as difficult as it was—and a year later, she gave
birth to a healthy son. She wrote, ‘I have shared my story with my
children, and hope that should my daughter ever find herself in a
position similar to mine, she will enjoy the same rights that were
available to me.’
“M. President, there are decades between my
college friend’s story and the three I’ve just told you—decades, and the
historic ruling in Roe v. Wade that affirmed that our Constitution
protects a woman’s right to control her own health care decisions.
“Roe, and the rulings that have upheld it, make
clear what women across the country know at their core to be true—that
reproductive freedom is essential to a woman’s ability to control her
future, plan her family, and contribute to her community in all the ways
she may choose to—as these three women were able to.
“M. President, reproductive freedom means women
are more able to participate equally and fully in our country. And—while
I can’t adequately express how frustrating it is to have to assert this
in the 21st century—we are stronger today because women in the United States are treated more equally than we were in the 1970s.
“In fact, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet
Yellen—the only woman to hold this position in the Reserve’s
hundred-year history—has said that our country’s economic growth in the
last half-century was in large part due to women joining the labor
force, and that to continue the growth we’ve seen, we will need to do
more to ensure more women have a level playing field in the workplace
and our society as a whole. But the progress women have made—and the
prospect of future progress—truly hangs in the balance now.
“Today I want to not only emphasize how real
this threat is—but paint a picture of how much more unequal life would
be for women in the United States of America, should Judge Kavanaugh be
confirmed, add a fifth vote on the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v.
Wade, and roll back reproductive rights women have had for more than
four decades.
“Let me say again that the threat to women’s
reproductive rights is frighteningly real. It is real because unless
Democrats and Republicans come together, President Trump will follow
through on his promise to overturn Roe. On the campaign trail, Candidate
Trump assured extreme, anti-choice special interest groups he would
implement their agenda if elected.
“He established a litmus test for Supreme Court
nominees and released a list of potential picks, each of whom had
demonstrated opposition to a woman’s right to choose. He said that under
his Presidency, Roe would be overturned ‘automatically’ once he had the
chance to appoint justices, because they would all be pro-life. He said
women should be punished for having abortions. He chose a Vice
President, Mike Pence, whose views on women and women’s health are about
as antiquated as smelling salts and far more damaging.
“M. President, candidate Trump aligned himself
unequivocally with those who want to roll back women’s rights. And while
President Trump has broken promise after promise to workers and
families, he has never once wavered in following through for those
anti-choice special interests.
“He has done virtually everything he can to chip
away at women’s constitutionally protected reproductive rights from the
Oval Office, whether it’s: proposing a domestic gag rule that would
allow the government to interfere in provider-patient relationships,
attempting time and time again to defund Planned Parenthood, or trying
to allow virtually any employer to decide to exclude birth control
coverage from their employer-sponsored coverage, and I could go on.
“So M. President, anyone who says President
Trump isn’t applying an anti-choice litmus test in this nomination—or
thinks it’s unclear where President Trump’s allegiance lies when it
comes to women’s health—should take a look at what he’s said and done.
Unless they willfully ignore the facts, they will quickly realize that
the President who, far beyond any modern President, has championed the
anti-choice cause has found exactly what he is looking for in Judge
Kavanaugh: a fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“M. President, the best evidence that Judge
Kavanaugh would overturn Roe is that extreme, anti-choice groups vetted
his likelihood to do exactly that—and sent him straight to President
Trump.
“But I do want to address a few aspects of Judge Kavanaugh’s records
that, to me, expose how unqualified he is to make decisions that will
impact women from all backgrounds, for generations to come. When I
examine the record and history of a Supreme Court nominee, I hope to see
a breadth of life experience, or the ability to walk in someone else’s
shoes. Judge Kavanaugh has not demonstrated either of these qualities.
“In expressing support for Justice Rehnquist’s
dissent in Roe, where the Justice argued for allowing restrictions on
women’s reproductive rights, Kavanaugh agreed with the idea that if a
right is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, it must be ‘rooted
in the traditions and conscience of our people.’ But he made clear he
does not believe a woman’s right to choose is rooted in the traditions
or the conscience of our people.
“So M. President, I am deeply concerned about
who Judge Kavanaugh thinks about, and trusts, when he imagines the
traditions and conscience of our people and makes decisions accordingly.
And his opinions from the bench only heighten my concern.
“In one opinion, Judge Kavanaugh ruled to allow
the Trump Administration to block a pregnant seventeen year old who
arrived alone at our border from accessing an abortion until the
government could place her with a sponsor. He felt that she needed a
‘support network’ around her before she was capable of making this
decision, even though she had been seeking an abortion for months, and
had already met state-level requirements.
“In another opinion, he expressed the belief
that if a woman’s employer doesn’t believe in birth control, that
employer shouldn’t even have to fill out a one-page form to allow the
woman to get birth control coverage directly from her insurer.
“M. President, the traditions and conscience
Judge Kavanaugh referred to may be, in his mind, that of historically
powerful, very wealthy white men—first in powdered wigs, and then in
suits—who ever faced the challenges women in these cases face. But these
women matter too. And they deserve a Justice who accounts for their
rights and liberties in his or her decisions. Unfortunately, Judge
Kavanaugh’s opinions indicate he will not do so. Instead, they display a
fundamental lack of trust in women’s ability to make their own health
care decisions.
“And they also show something more—a poor
understanding of the unequal economic and social realities women
continue to face in our country—despite the progress we’ve made—and the
degree to which these differences make it all the more important that
women be trusted and treated equally under the law, independently and in
their own right.
“Because, M. President, if an employer tries to
deny his employee affordable birth control because he thinks he knows
better, or if a politicized federal agency is physically detaining a
young woman in hopes it can impose its beliefs on her, or if a woman
does not want to carry her rapist’s child to term, our nation’s laws
must affirm her autonomy because our laws are her place of last resort.
“But under Judge Kavanaugh’s vision for our
country—based on his assessment of our traditions and conscience—women
would not have this last resort. Instead, a woman’s ability to get
reproductive health care would overwhelmingly depend, like it did before
Roe, on whether she could afford it, and therefore disproportionately
on her race and zip code as well.
“Our country as a whole would see outcomes like
we are already seeing in states like Texas and Mississippi, where
abortion access is heavily restricted under policies Judge Kavanaugh has
referenced approvingly. While women with resources have more options,
women without resources see the providers where they got affordable
contraception and health care close down because of anti-abortion
politics. And reproductive health care, from sex education to birth
control to abortion, becomes a privilege for the wealthy rather than the
right of every woman regardless of who she is.
“M. President, that isn’t fair. It’s not right. And it truly isn’t what people in this country want.
“President Trump said that Roe is a 50-50 issue
in the United States. He’s wrong. People in our country—Democrats,
Republicans, women and men of all ages and backgrounds overwhelmingly
understand that abortion is a deeply personal decision, one our laws
should allow women to make, just as every American’s bodily autonomy
should be their own concern and not their government’s.
“Despite what the White House would have us
believe, this is not a country that wants to follow President Trump,
Vice President Pence, and five male Supreme Court justices back to 1972.
“But the only way to stop this from happening is
for people to take action. I urge anyone—woman or man—who is concerned
right now to make that clear—loudly and immediately. If you have a story
that shows why reproductive rights matter in our country, share it. If
you haven’t signed up to vote—and told your friends to—do it.
“M. President, one year ago this week, three of
my Republican colleagues stood with Democrats and stopped President
Trump’s effort to enact Trumpcare, which would have gutted protections
for patients with pre-existing conditions, ended Medicaid as we know it,
and more. That happened because people across the country knew what was
at stake and spoke up—despite how long the odds seemed.
“That is what we need now—and I am confident we can succeed again if people who care show it by speaking up.
“M. President, the last story I’ll tell is one I
hope women and men today will be able to tell their daughters and
granddaughters decades from now, should they ever need to hear it. It’s
that our country went through an extremely frightening time—when one of
many rights on the verge of being taken away was a woman’s right to
choose. And we thought about them—our daughters and granddaughters—and
how important it is that each one of them be treated equally under our
country’s laws and have the opportunity to achieve the goals they set to
out to achieve. So we did everything we could to fight back, and we
didn’t let it happen on our watch. Let’s make that our story.
“Thank you and I yield the floor.”
