'We See What You're Doing': Lisa Blunt Rochester Slams Efforts To Create A National Abortion Ban

Forbes Breaking News

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) spoke about attacks on reproductive freedom during a press briefing last week.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Senator Baldwin, and please give her a round of applause for leading this charge.

00:09Thank you, Senator.

00:11Leader Schumer, my Democratic colleagues, to each of the champions that are in this room, and to our storytellers,

00:20it is an honor to be standing with you today.

00:24Three years ago today, the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and 60 years of precedent.

00:33Women went to sleep on June 23rd, 2022, and woke up on June 24th with fewer rights than our mothers and our grandmothers.

00:45And that was the result of decades-long efforts by conservative Republicans to take away our reproductive freedoms.

00:53They claimed that they wanted to leave access to abortion to the states,

00:59but the Trump administration and extremist Republicans across the nation really wanted one thing, a national abortion ban.

01:11And in case you haven't noticed it, the pieces of this puzzle have been coming together quietly.

01:18But the puzzle is not complete.

01:24They froze Title X funding for clinics, fired reproductive health care experts, restricted access to mifepristone,

01:33look, I can't even say it.

01:35Say it every day, mifepristone.

01:37You did it.

01:38Yes.

01:39The abortion bill and so much more.

01:44All while this week, they tried to pass a bill that would strip Medicaid from millions of Americans.

01:53And let's be clear, Medicaid covers about 40% of the births in this country,

01:58which means they're trying to cut off funding for healthy births while limiting health care options available to all of us.

02:08Because what is abortion care?

02:11It is health care.

02:13And who will be hurt the most by this effort?

02:17Young women, poor women, women in rural areas, and women of color.

02:22And I know this intimately because as Senator Baldwin talked about a constituent of hers,

02:30I experienced this personally having my daughter-in-law on Christmas morning a few years ago.

02:38Her water broke prematurely.

02:40We showed up at a hospital, and they sent her home without the care that she needed.

02:45Because I knew about our maternal mortality crisis, I was like, we're not stopping here.

02:52And we took her to another place.

02:55She was able to get the care she needed.

02:57And a year later, my granddaughter was born because of IVF.

03:03So we know this personally.

03:06We know this intimately.

03:07For black women and brown women, we also know that we are disproportionately impacted.

03:16We have higher maternal mortality rates.

03:19We have higher reproductive cancer rates.

03:21We have higher rates of preterm births.

03:24This is personal.

03:26This is personal.

03:28And Republicans cannot say that they are the party of freedom and then tell us what to do with our bodies.

03:34They can't be the, he can't be the fertilization president, Mr. Trump.

03:40But then you want to make it more dangerous for people to have babies.

03:44You can't claim you're the party of strong economic growth.

03:48But you're cutting Medicaid, food assistance, child care, making it harder for women to participate in the workforce.

03:55All to give tax breaks to people who already have access to all of these things.

04:01So today, we want the American people to know that we have not forgotten where we started three years ago.

04:11And that to our conservative Republicans across the country who are watching, we see you.

04:18We see what you're doing.

04:21It may be quiet, but we see it.

04:24We see what you're doing.

04:24We see the puzzle of a national abortion ban that you are assembling.

04:30And we're going to do everything in our power, not just to fight now.

04:34But we're going to be ready to push the button when it's time to go and restore our freedoms and our rights.

04:42So, as Democrats and as advocates, we're about to put the pieces back in the box.

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