Sens. Boxer, Clinton, Mikulski and Rep. DeGette Hold News Conference on Roe v. Wade

MIKULSKI:

Thank you, Senator Boxer. You're such a champion on this issue.

I'm proud to be here with my colleagues to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Before Roe, too many women died in illegal abortions.

I believe that women faced with difficult decisions about their pregnancy must have options that are safe; those decisions must be private. And we must continue to affirm the right of privacy in this country and the right of women to choose according to their medical and other circumstances in their lives.

For those who wonder are we pro-abortion: We are pro the health of women. We believe that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. And this is why we support Roe v. Wade.

Today's anniversary is a solemn one. Thirty years have passed, and yet once again Roe is under attack. The Bush administration is already whittling away at the spirit of Roe. There's a war against contraception, there's a war against birth control, there's a war against women, whether he's attacking international family planning by reinstituting the global gag rule or appointing women to the Women's Health Advisory Committee who are absolutely opposed to Roe v. Wade and absolutely opposed to the FDA decision to approve RU-486.

When we deny women access to the tools she needs to choose, we deny her the right to help herself and her family. If we're to meet the existing needs for family planning around the world, if we're going to fight the global epidemic of AIDS around the world, we need to protect maternity and child health, and one of the first ways is family planning.

Now, abortion is never and never should be used as a tool for family planning. But this is a whole continuum that the war against women is being waged.

So on this anniversary of Roe v. Wade we want to affirm the principals of Roe v. Wade, we want to affirm the fact that we will fight for an independent judiciary in terms of the decisions related to women, related to privacy, and we will also continue to fight for the programs that improve the maternity and child health to enable women to plan their families, and also that when their children are born we're going to make sure they have the right schools, the right help they need to move on.

If we're talking about a culture of life, it begins right here and now.

I turn this over to my colleague, Senator Clinton.