Murray, Senate Democrats Slam Republicans for Pushing Anti-Abortion Extremism Instead of Legislation to Lower Costs and Help Families

***VIDEO of Senator Murray's floor speech HERE***

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led Democrats in speaking out on the Senate floor against Republicans assaulting reproductive freedom in the first week of the Trump administration-showing yet again how they are more focused on attacking women and reproductive health care than doing anything to lower costs or help working families and children succeed.

Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on S.6, legislation that would create a new government mandate overriding the best judgment of grieving families facing fatal fetal diagnoses, threaten providers, and create even more barriers to reproductive health care in America. Murray and Senate Democrats laid out how this bill is just the latest effort by Republicans to further attack women and families, peddle dangerous anti-abortion disinformation, and give politicians power over some of the most painful and personal decisions a family can face-like how to grieve a fetus with a fatal condition.

"Families are looking to us to solve problems and lower prices-instead what they are seeing is Republicans lying about women, lying about health care, and lying about the tragic realities families face when they learn their baby has a fatal diagnosis and cannot survive long after birth. Of all the bills we could be voting on, it is an absolute disgrace that Republicans are spending their first weeks in power attacking women, criminalizing doctors, and lying about abortion," said Senator Murray. "Families don't need less choice about how to handle tragic medical news. What families actually need are affordable groceries, child care, paid leave, and quality health care-and access to programs like SNAP and Medicaid which Republicans want to cut to the bone."

"It's Donald Trump's first week as president, and Republicans are already escalating their war on women's reproductive freedoms," said Leader Schumer. "This so-called born alive bill, which the Senate has squarely rejected in the past, attacks women's healthcare through false narratives and outright fear mongering. It would harm the ability of medical professionals to provide healthcare based on evidence and turns heartbreakingly difficult situations into political footballs. Senate Democrats stand ready to reject this partisan and pernicious bill when it comes to the Senate floor."

"Instead of addressing the health care crisis that Dobbs has unleashed, Republicans are now looking to make it even harder for women to access comprehensive and compassionate health care," said Senator Durbin. "Tomorrow, they will attempt to bring the so-called Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to the floor for a vote. The bill creates new standards of care for physicians providing reproductive health care that are not based in medicine, fact, or science. The goal of the bill is to target and intimidate reproductive health care providers and make it harder for women to access vital health care. I vehemently reject this offensive and heartless bill."

"Republicans aren't talking about what we can do to lower costs or make life more affordable, instead one of the very first bills they are putting forward is in service of a national abortion ban that is completely out of touch with Americans. We shouldn't be telling women's doctors how to take care of their patients, but that is exactly what this bill does," said Senator Smith. "Let's give women the dignity, the autonomy and the freedom to make their own medical decisions without a bunch of politicians getting in the way, and let's oppose this legislation."

"Some of my colleagues have decided that, rather than address the most pressing issues facing the American people, they will instead push legislation to curtail the freedom of women-just the latest in their long line of efforts since Roe was overturned to take away more and more freedom from half of the population," said Senator Hassan. "This legislation will not bring down the prices of groceries, nor will it reduce rents, or do anything to make it easier for families to make ends meet, but it will make life harder for expectant mothers facing a painful choice."

"This legislation has one purpose, and that's to make safe abortion services even more inaccessible by intimidating doctors with the threat of criminal liability," said Senator Shaheen. "This is fearmongering at its finest, and by choosing to focus on this bill-during President Trump's first week in office-some Republicans are choosing to politicize a family's trauma, instead of focusing on making life easier, more affordable and better for all Americans."

"The so called Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act… is legislation in search of a problem. It's deliberately misleading and offensive to pregnant people and to their health care providers," said Senator Cantwell. "It is incredibly heartbreaking, these scenarios where a baby is born with a fatal diagnosis, that the baby's parents must want to spend those precious moments holding and saying goodbye to their child, but under these extreme ideas, doctors would have to perform aggressive medical care that would only prolong a family's suffering. We need to honor that these are medical decisions left to the woman and her physician and to her family, and we trust that doctors and nurses know how to carry this out […] and so I will be voting against this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to do so."

"This legislation is simply a blatant attempt to interfere with evidence-based patient care and medical practices while enshrining lies about abortion care. My Republican colleagues spent the last four years calling Democrats alarmists, but here they are aggressively pursuing legislation that would persecute providers for doing their jobs and making a tragic situation for families even worse," said Senator Blumenthal. "These policies actively harm families. Pretending otherwise is a slap in the face to those who voted for all of us and you in particular."

"Republicans have chosen to spend their first day in power trying to pass a bill that would further criminalize reproductive health care and force expecting parents to endure unimaginable trauma in an already unthinkable situation," Senator Wyden said. "While Republicans are full steam ahead with their crusade against reproductive freedom and the right to privacy, Democrats are focused on tackling inflation and cutting costs for working families."

Existing law ensures that all babies, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, are equally protected under the law-this was codified in the bipartisan Born-Alive Infant Protections Act of 2002, which passed the Senate unanimously. S.6 is legislation in search of a problem that would have far-reaching, tragic consequences.

S. 6 would force physicians to adhere to new mandates that are not based in medicine or science, and make it harder for women to access compassionate health care-at a time when there are already so many barriers to care. Under the bill's overly broad, vague standards, an induced labor of a fetus with a fatal diagnosis could potentially be considered an "attempted abortion"-this would subject medical providers to up to five years in prison for not following the requirements of the bill. In cases of a fatal diagnosis, a baby may only live a few minutes or hours outside of the womb-that baby's parents may want to spend that precious, limited time holding and saying goodbye to their baby, not having the baby transported to a hospital for aggressive medical care that will do absolutely nothing to save the life of their child and only prolong their suffering. Democrats believe doctors and parents should be able to determine what compassionate medical interventions are pursued when the fetus has a fatal condition-not politicians.

Senator Murray's full remarks, as delivered on the Senate floor today, are below and video is HERE:

"Mr. President, families are looking to us to solve problems. They are looking to us to lower prices. They are looking for help getting food on the table, or getting child care, or getting their prescriptions filled.

"But what they are seeing instead today, is Republicans lying about women, lying about health care, and lying about the tragic realities that families face when they learn their baby has a fatal diagnosis and cannot survive long after birth.

"Of all the bills that we could be voting on right now-it is an absolute disgrace that Republicans are spending their first weeks in power attacking women, criminalizing doctors, and lying about abortion.

"This bill would create a new government mandate that would override the best judgment of grieving families who find out their fetus has a fatal condition. And it would create new, medically unnecessary barriers for doctors and patients at a time when doctors already have their hands tied when it comes to providing basic reproductive health care.

"Republicans' whole premise on this bill is a sham. Their whole bill is a disgrace. And we are here on the floor, today to call it out. I am not going to let anyone perpetuate the so-called 'abortion until birth' myths, and lies about people who have abortions and the providers who care for them. This is not how abortion works-and Republicans know it.

"Killing a baby is already illegal in every single state. In fact we passed a law in 2002 that made that crystal clear-I'd know because I was here; it passed unanimously.

"Doctors already have a legal obligation to provide appropriate medical care to any infant born in this country. And let's be clear-we already know that Republicans' sham bill is not going anywhere, by the way.

"We have been here, before-after all, Republicans held a vote on this bill a few years ago and not a single Democrat who is still in the Senate today voted for it.

"Last time we voted on this bill, I spoke about something Republicans refuse to acknowledge in this debate: the actual voices and experiences of women who receive a heartbreaking diagnosis late in a pregnancy, what they actually go through, how this bill would hurt them and their families.

"I spoke then about Judy, she's from Washington state-her son's organs did not develop properly. One lung was 20 percent formed. The other was missing entirely.

"I spoke about Lindsay-her daughter had an aggressive, inoperable tumor growing into her brain, her heart, and her lungs.

"I spoke about Darla-one of her twins had serious medical complications. Not terminating that pregnancy would have put her other twin's health at risk.

"How you ignore something like that I will never understand-but instead, Republicans are talking about things that simply do not happen.

"However, I have a different story to share today. You see, last time, I shared those stories of women who were able to make the choice that was right for their family. But the stories now, are of women who were denied that choice.

"And that is because Republicans have ripped away abortion rights and state abortion bans have forced some women into the kind of nightmare Republicans are now seeking to take nationwide.

"In Florida, Deborah learned at 23 weeks her baby had no kidneys, and it would not survive after birth. She felt an abortion was the right step for her family. But Florida gave her no choice about what happened next. They forced her to carry a doomed pregnancy for months.

"Do you know what it's like to go for months, pregnant with a baby you know will not survive, and getting questions and comments like 'Is this your first child?' 'Are you excited?'

"Do you know what it's like fighting back tears as you try to decide whether to nod politely or explain that actually your world is falling apart? And, all the while, knowing you have to go through all of this against your will-because some politician decided they knew better.

"Deborah avoided going out. She was afraid to go to the grocery store. And she said, 'I just went into a really dark place, you know, essentially planning my son's birth and funeral at the same time.'

"That's what abortion bans do. That is what happens when we take choice away from patients. When Republicans decide they know better. And Deborah is far from the only woman to go through this-infant deaths from birth defects jumped in Florida following their abortion ban.

"Now, Republicans have a bill to take that issue nationwide. That is what we are voting on here tomorrow. That is their top priority now that Trump is in office.

"And not only are they trying to take that abortion heartbreak nationwide-they are lying about what is really at stake here. And lying about what women like Deborah are going through, what their own policies will cause more women to go through. Shame on them.

"This is infuriating. Women like Deborah may not be billionaires, but they should still have their voices heard, and as long as I am here-they will be.

"So here's my message for Republicans: families don't need less choice about how to handle tragic medical news.

"What families actually need is affordable groceries. What families actually need is child care. What they actually need is paid leave, and quality health care, access to programs like SNAP and Medicaid-which Republicans want to cut to the bone.

"Now I can't predict what attack Republicans will launch on abortion next, but I can promise we will be here to call them out.

"Both for what they are trying to do-lie about women and doctors-and for everything they are failing to do: lowering costs and making life easier for folks back home."

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