Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I will be honest. I am deep-down furious at the Republican scheme to defund Planned Parenthood. I didn't think the Republican leadership could sink any lower than trying to defund women's cancer screenings and access to birth control, but then I saw the bill we are voting on tomorrow and I felt sick to my stomach. Here we are just days away from another reckless Republican government shutdown, and the Republicans think the best use of our time is to vote on a bill to give the government the power to intrude on the most wrenching, intimate, private medical decisions a woman will ever make.

The Republicans want a debate over a 20-week abortion ban, so let's talk about exactly what that means. Nearly 99 percent of all abortions take place within the first 21 weeks of a woman's pregnancy. Let me repeat. Nearly 99 percent are in the first 21 weeks. So based on statistics alone, this bill won't make a big difference in the number of abortions, but for the women who get hit, the consequences can be truly horrific.

Let's start with the research. Who are these women? Who are the 1 percent who get an abortion after 20 weeks? Who? Women or girls who are the victims of rape, incest, or domestic violence and were to frightened to ask for help any sooner. Who? Women whose doctors have told them that if they don't end their pregnancy--pregnancies they really wanted--their kidneys could fail or their hearts could give out or they couldn't get the chemotherapy they may need to save their lives. Who? Women who go for an ultrasound and get the worst possible news--that their fetus has a giant hole in its stomach or organs outside its body or a deformed head and the fetus either has no chance of survival or has a severe abnormality that would mean a short life filled with pain. Research also shows that women who have had later abortions are more likely to be young--very young girls, really--and didn't understand they were pregnant.

They are more likely to live in places where getting an abortion means driving 3 hours or more to find a doctor who will perform one. They are more likely to be poor and need to save up money to pay for the procedure. That is who gets hit by this.

I have taken a close look at the Republican bill to see just how hard they get hit. I want to put it right out here in the open for everyone to see.

There are no--I repeat--no exceptions in this bill for the condition of the fetus. Even if a woman knows at 20 weeks that her child will die immediately after birth, she would still be required to carry that pregnancy for months.

An 18-year-old survivor of rape or incest must wait until she can provide written proof that she received counseling from a doctor, and then that counseling is loaded with hurdles: The counseling must come only from a doctor who refuses to perform abortions and who doesn't work in an office with another doctor who does. Think about it. Prolong the pain and anxiety, and for anyone who lives in a rural area or anyone who is making it barely paycheck to paycheck and cannot miss multiple days of work, make it twice as hard to get any help.

If the victim of rape or incest is a minor, it gets even worse. A girl--a girl who is 10, 12, 14 years old--this girl must face the same challenges and must provide written proof that she reported the crime to the police, even if turning in a family member or announcing to the world that she has been raped could destroy her life in a million different ways. I cannot imagine that the Senate would pass a law to require a frightened 12-year-old girl to submit written proof that she had called the police to report a rape by her mother's boyfriend before she could terminate that pregnancy. That kind of cruelty is barbaric, and it has no place in our laws.

But this is not just about the tiny number of people who must seek abortions after 20 weeks; this horrifying bill that we will vote on tomorrow is just one more piece of a deliberate, methodical, orchestrated rightwing plan to attack women's health and reproductive rights. A funding cut here, a new restriction here, month after month, year after year, and Rowe v. Wade will be chipped away to nothing. That is what this is all about. That is what this has always been all about.

We have lived in an America where women died in back-alley abortions. We have lived in an America where high school girls tried poisons and coat hangers to try to end pregnancies. We have lived in an America where young woman who faced unwanted pregnancies took their own lives. We have lived in that America, and we are not going back--not now, not ever.

We stand here on the brink of another reckless Republican government shutdown. We all remember what happened the last time the Republicans shut the government down: $24 billion was flushed down the drain for a political stunt--$24 billion that could have gone to help mothers and their babies with prenatal care, better infant nutrition, Head Start classes, medical research on birth abnormalities. Instead, the money was flushed away by Republicans who want to play political games more than they want to help children and families all across this country.

I urge my colleagues to vote no on this terrible bill. Stand up to this rightwing assault on women and families. Instead of trying to do the job of physicians and telling women what is best for their own medical care, Republicans in the Senate should start doing the job of legislators and get to work on this Nation's budget.

I yield the floor.

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