Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Devastating Impact Of The Dobbs Decision And Democrats’ Continued Fight For A Woman’s Right To Choose
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Democrats’ persistence in fighting for abortion rights in a post-Roe America. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Last week, on what should have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I called the decision to overturn Roe one of the worst, most damaging decisions for Americans in modern history.
Just a couple days later, a horrifying new study was released in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing the devastating effects of the Roe reversal for women in America.
According to this study, the State of Texas alone saw over 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in the year-and-a-half since Texas outlawed all abortions, with zero exceptions for rape.
Let me say that again because the results are staggering, confounding, frightening: according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the State of Texas alone saw over 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in the year-and-a-half since Texas outlawed all abortions, with zero exceptions for rape.
And there were over 58,000 total rape-related pregnancies in states with total abortion bans and zero exceptions for rape.
The numbers from this study are shocking. They’re heartbreaking. And it’s all the more maddening because the hard-right abortion restrictions in Texas are as cruel as they come: forced pregnancies, no exceptions for rape, no exceptions for incest.
Not long ago, the abortion restrictions in Texas would have been considered on the fringe of the fringe. Today, sadly, it’s a reality for women in post-Roe America.
Make no mistake about it, an America where abortion is outlawed with zero exceptions is precisely – precisely – what the hard-right wants.
The hard-right doesn’t care about exceptions – even for rape or incest – they want the freedom of choice to be extinct, period. No ands, ifs, or buts.
Democrats will never let that stand. We will never stop fighting to protect a woman’s right to choose.
And Republicans won’t be able to run from this horror they created later this year when the American people go to the polls.
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