Blumenthal Speaks on Senate Floor Urging Passage of the Women's Health Protection Act

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke on the Senate Floor today urging his colleagues to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA). The legislation – introduced by Blumenthal, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and 47 of their Senate colleagues – guarantees a pregnant person’s right to access an abortion—and the right of an abortion provider to deliver such abortion services—free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship.

“This measure is now necessary to protect the rights of all people to seek the health care that they need and deserve,” said Blumenthal. “I trust women. I trust women to make decisions about their own future. I trust women more than I do elected officials or judges or government bureaucrats to decide what is right for them individually.”

“This measure is necessary to stop all of the bans, prohibitions, medically unnecessary restrictions that have no purpose except to cut off care and stigmatize women seeking health care services and the dedicated health care providers who serve them,” Blumenthal continued.

Reintroduction of the Women’s Health Protection Act comes in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade. Blumenthal discussed the impact of these harmful bans and the disproportionate impact they have on communities of color.

“Black, Latina, Indigenous, and other people of color have always faced inexcusable inequities in health care access and outcomes due to discrimination, racism, and oppression,” said Blumenthal. “This bill is critical for communities which are disproportionately harmed by the bans and medically unnecessary restrictions that the Women's Health Protection Act would prohibit. It supports those that face the greatest barriers to care.”

Blumenthal also discussed the ongoing assault on Americans’ personal health care decisions as a district court considers a preliminary injunction to stop the sale and distribution of mifepristone, a safe, common, FDA-approved abortion and miscarriage management medication nationwide, warning that a nationwide ban, “will affect women in Connecticut.”

Video of Blumenthal’s remarks can be found here. A transcript of Blumenthal’s speech is available below. 

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal: I am proud but I'm also saddened and angry to be here introducing a measure that should never be necessary in the United States of America, the Women's Health Protection Act will, yes, offer protection to women who need and deserve it.

But it is only because of a hideously misguided decision of the United States Supreme Court that we are here today. When I first introduced this measure ten years ago, the thought of overruling Roe v. Wade was unimaginable. It was a figment of fear dismissed by realistic scholars and advocates. It was unthinkable. And here we are.

The United States Supreme Court has handed down a death sentence to women across America. It has overturned 50 years of precedent which I know well because I was a law clerk to the United States Supreme Court justice who wrote that opinion in the year afterward. And we thought then, and so did most people in America, we've dealt with this issue, we've disposed of it. It's done in terms of jurisprudence.

But this measure is now necessary to protect the rights of all people to seek the health care that they need and deserve. And I'll tell you why I believe that this measure should be passed. I trust women. I trust women to make decisions about their own future. I trust women more than I do elected officials or judges or government bureaucrats to decide what is right for them individually.

And this measure is necessary to stop all of the bans, prohibitions, medically unnecessary restrictions that have no purpose except to cut off care and stigmatize women seeking health care services and the dedicated health care providers who serve them.

Now I have a message to the men of America. This fight is yours too. This isn't a women's issue. This is an American issue, it's a family issue. And if you think you are spared the conscience and conviction that should require you to stand up and speak out, you're wrong. This issue is yours too.

We've seen horror stories just in the months since Dobbs. You heard one from my colleague, Senator Baldwin. I have a similar one. Amanda Eid in Texas who sadly learned that her baby would not survive, but doctors would not treat her as she might have done in other states. They told her to go home. She almost died: sepsis. They brought her back to the hospital, rushed her to intensive care, and her husband Josh learned that as a result, they might never have children. And he said, “Amanda almost died. That's not pro-life,” he said. “Amanda will have challenges having more kids. That's not pro-life.”

He called it barbaric. That is the Texas law, barbaric, inhuman. Protecting access to abortion through the Women's Health Protection Act would not only help women like Amanda, it would help families, it would help countless women who simply choose access to abortion care because it's right for them and for their families, for other children, that are already part of those families.

A woman simply should not be forced to carry a pregnancy to term because some government bureaucrat decides she should.

There is a kind of dirty little secret here, and that is that Black, Latina, indigenous, and other people of color have always faced inexcusable inequities in health care access and outcomes due to discrimination, racism, and oppression. And the result is that the practical effect of these abortion restrictions and needless requirements fall disproportionately on them and communities of color.

This point is so important because it goes to the heart of the Women's Health Protection Act. At its core, this bill is about justice, it's about reproductive justice. It’s a term conceptualized in 1994 by a group of Black women who rightfully saw an urgent need for a national movement to highlight and focus on the most marginalized women, families, and communities. Abortion bans and restrictions continue to force women in communities of color who don't wish to carry [pregnancies to term] or [who are denied] the care they need and deserve in moments when their health care is at risk.

So this bill is critical for communities which are disproportionately harmed by the bans and medically unnecessary restrictions that the Women's Health Protection Act would prohibit. It supports those [who] face the greatest barriers to care.

And I want to finally thank, in this fight, some of the health care providers, advocates, lawyers, and staff who have been on the front lines in these past ten years. People like Jackie Blank, Sara Outterson and Liz Wagner of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Monica Edwards at URGE, Dr. Jamila Perritt at Physicians for Reproductive Choice, Amy Williams-Navarro at NARAL, Karen Stone and Nina Serrianne at Planned Parenthood, Leila Abolfazli at the National Women’s Law Center. And so many across the country, including in Connecticut. Amanda Skinner and Gretchen Raffa at Planned Parenthood. Liz Gustafson at NARAL Pro Choice Connecticut.

Make no mistake, this fight will continue. The Women's Health Protection Act will pass. It may not be in the next couple of weeks or next couple of months, maybe not even in this session, but it will pass because the conscious of America demands it. That's why referendum have won on this issue, and that's why voters went to the polls and showed with their feet where they stand.

And that's why we need to fight rulings from the court, hard-right Republican judges who have declared a war on women. As soon as next week a judge in Texas may rule mifepristone, the most common form of abortion care in this country, is illegal, despite 20 years of safe use of that drug and approval by the FDA of that drug. A nationwide ban that will affect women in Connecticut if he does it. And we've seen also that Walgreens will not sell or make available mifepristone whose states attorneys general have threatened to sue Walgreens if it makes that drug available. They have succumbed to bullying. They said to attorneys general, okay, women lose, you win.

I urge consumers to vote with their feet, do their business elsewhere, and show where they stand. I'm proud to be here with my colleagues to continue this fight for the Women's Health Protection Act. Thank you.

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