TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Remarks At Fight For Full Access To Reproductive Healthcare Press Conference

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Democrats delivered remarks at a press conference on the three-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, which comes as Congressional Republicans and President Trump continue their attacks on reproductive freedoms in their “Big, Ugly Betrayal.” Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Leader Schumer: Today marks a grim anniversary in America. Three years since the MAGA justices on the Supreme Court eliminated the protections of Roe in the disastrous, horrible, nasty Dobbs decision. The Dobbs case will go down in history as one of the worst, most harmful, most regressive decisions in modern history. And it has, it's unfortunately had a terrible and wide-ranging effect. Twenty-one states have significantly restricted the right to choose. Fourteen states have practically total abortion bans. In states like Texas, maternal mortality is spiking and people are dying. People are dying as a result of the Dobbs decision.

Plain and simple, can't say it—can't gloss that over in any way. Since Dobbs, one in five people, people like Chanette's daughter and Amber Thurman have had to travel great distances across state lines and wait weeks or more just to get the care they need and deserve and used to have before the Dobbs decision. This is abominable. We know that this is what Republicans want, a total ban on abortion. These anti-choice fanatics will stop at nothing. They don't think their work is finished even after such a horrible and wide-ranging decision as Dobbs. Reproductive freedom is under attack on all sides. Extremists are banning and restricting abortion, criminalizing providers, defunding care and interfering with life-saving medicines. These attacks are also devastating our economy. With fewer reproductive health care protections, fewer women are participating in the workforce. State-level restrictions on abortion access combined with the lack of federal protection cost the economy more than $133 billion nationally. $133 billion. The 16 states with the most restrictive abortion policies were responsible for $64 billion in economic loss. So as bad as the Dobbs decision was, as catastrophic as the impacts have already been, Republicans want to double their efforts on their crusade against access to reproductive health care and the right to choose.

Right now as we speak, Republicans are trying to jam through one of the most extreme radical provisions in their “Big, Ugly Betrayal.” Two nasty provisions to defund Planned Parenthood and eliminate coverage for comprehensive reproductive care from the ACA marketplace. So they're not just going after Planned Parenthood anymore, which they've done for a while, but they're going way beyond that, going into the ACA and people who have coverage there. So let's call this what it is. It's a Republican backdoor abortion ban done in the reconciliation bill. Under the bill, under the Republicans' bill, if they have their way, nearly 200 Planned Parenthood health centers in 24 states would be at the risk of closing. More than 90% of these closures would be in states where abortion is currently legal. So, you say, well, I'm in a state that has protected women's rights, you're not safe. In all, one in four abortion providers nationwide would be eliminated. So don't try to let the Republicans argue this is about states' rights. It's all about them taking power away from women to make choices about their bodies. Their callousness has no end. While stripping insurance from millions, they're also doggedly fighting to take American rights away, cutting reproductive health care access to millions.

I'm here to say that Democrats are going to fight like hell to strip these cruel provisions from the Republican bill, including in the Byrd bath, which will be occurring today or tomorrow. And we're putting up a great fight there. We've just won a couple of other issues in the Byrd bath, like our [public] lands and the REINS Act. We're going to fight this one hard. And today, also, with Senator Baldwin as our lead, we will introduce the Women's Health Protection Act to ensure that health care providers have the statutory right to provide patients abortion services free from bans, free from restrictions. Republicans, to their core, know how deeply unpopular their actions on abortion are. They know how deeply unpopular abortion bans are. So they're trying to achieve an abortion ban by another name in another way. We're not going to let them get away with that. Republicans are now trying to pull a fast one on the American people by putting a backdoor abortion ban in their “Big, Ugly Betrayal.” It's an assault on any person or family that thinks the government has no business calling the shots on their health care. It's an assault on women and families that are facing some of the most devastating and life-saving options of their lives. It's an assault on their rights, and it's assault on your rights as well. So let me be clear. Just as we fought back against attacks on abortion before, we will fight these nasty provisions with every fiber in our being. We feel this so passionately, so strongly, that we will not stop until we achieve our goal of giving women the right to choose. Dobbs has set us back. Senate Democrats will continue to stand together and fight back against Republicans in every single way.

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