Executive Calendar
Floor Speech
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Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I might be the luckiest person in the world because I get to wake up on Sunday and spend Mother's Day, well, being a mom. I will probably spend the morning helping my 1-year-old take a few wobbly steps and then the afternoon watching my 4-year-old draw or chasing her around the house, celebrating the holiday surrounded by the people I cherish the most.
But that isn't the case for far too many other moms and kids around the country. That isn't the case for women like Denise Reed, Sybrina Fulton, or Valerie Castile, who lost their children to gun violence. That isn't the case for the hundreds of children born in the past year alone whose mothers died from preventable, pregnancy-related deaths. That certainly isn't the case for the families whom the Trump administration separated at our southern border and who still have not yet been reunited, the kids who were thrown in cages because their parents had the nerve to strive for a better life.
This Mother's Day, I am thinking of those whose hearts are hurting, those moms who would give anything for another lazy Sunday with their sons or those daughters who would do anything to hear their mother's laugh one more time.
The truth is, the women--moms or otherwise--in this country deserve better than the status quo. We deserve more than the Trump administration, which in just 2-plus years has already changed title IX sexual assault rules to favor the accused over the survivor, tried to defund health clinics that provide prenatal care and mammograms, pushed forward healthcare proposals that would have gutted maternity coverage, and handed employers the power to decide whether women should have access to birth control.
All this--well, it is shocking but unfortunately not surprising because we knew who Donald Trump was when we elected him. He is the man who has long made clear that he does not care about women or our autonomy. He is the man who once argued that women should be punished for taking up the right to choose; who has taken pride in trying to put the government between us and our doctors; who would rather throw those doctors in jail than even pretend to care about the women who make up 51 percent of this Nation; who just 10 days ago stood on a stage in Wisconsin and lied, lied, lied, prioritizing a roar from the crowd over the safety of patients and providers at health clinics nationwide; and who just last week issued two rules that would make it easier for doctors to either discriminate against women or deny them care altogether.
So don't tell me that Trump is ``pro-life'' when he is pushing for rules that endanger women's lives and when he spent years trying to strip healthcare away from Americans. Don't claim that he is just trying to protect families when he is the one to blame for the inhumane policy that is ripping toddlers and babies away from mothers' arms. Don't you dare argue that he is leading the ``party of life'' when he will not lift a finger to stop first graders from getting massacred in classrooms by the dozen. No, Donald Trump's anti-choice stance isn't about looking out for families; it is about getting a slap on the back from his base and exerting even more control over women's bodies. It is sexist, regressive, and flatout dangerous.
But even while this administration's agenda is a travesty, it is not an anomaly; rather, it is just the latest step in the far-right's long march to strip away women's rights. I am tired of it, sick of their trying to shame women when they are the ones who should be ashamed.
So enough with the hypocrisy, with the misogyny, with some men in hallowed halls in DC arguing that they know better than moms in Illinois or Arizona or Missouri. We can and we must do better. That means fighting for everything from equal pay to better parental leave. It means proving that we care about women every day of the year, not just on one Sunday in May. That is the least that our mothers, our daughters, and our sisters deserve.
Thank you.
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