Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday took to the U.S. Senate floor to call for the passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act. Murphy also called out Republicans’ hypocrisy and their efforts to distort the debate on abortion with falsehoods.
Murphy highlighted Republican hypocrisy: “Frankly, it’s always been really hard for me to square how Republicans who so readily evangelize about small government, about the importance of putting families and their decision making processes first, about the evil of public sector overreach, are so enthusiastic about the government micromanaging personal decisions about pregnancy or marriage or adoption. Small government is great, I guess for corporations, but it’s not so great when it comes to the most intimate decisions the families make.”
“And as I’ve said on this floor before, it’s also hard to take seriously, Republicans’ passionate pleas for this body to defend the existence of an unborn fetus when they seem to care so little about many of the existential threats that are posed to every American after they are born. Today, this day, over 100 Americans are going to die from gunshot wounds, from murders and suicides… It seems that after birth, life matters a little bit less to some people in this body,” Murphy added.
Murphy also called out Republican lies about the Women’s Health Protection Act: “Today, I heard Republican senators making a whole bunch of claims that are just so ungrounded in truth as to diminish the quality of what should be a very important debate on a very weighty subject…I heard one senator say that the Women’s Health Protection Act, for which I will proudly vote tomorrow, allows for garage abortions. That’s not true. That’s just plainly not true. Every state requires that abortions be performed in licensed health care facilities and nothing in the bill changes it. Don’t say that just because it makes a better story.”
A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
“Madam president, I will probably get in trouble with somebody for saying this, but the question of when life begins, the deeper question of what defines life, which biological entities are alive or possess independent existence versus which biological entities are simply part of something else that is alive. Man, those are really hard questions.
“I heard my colleague Senator Daines on the floor earlier tonight, talking passionately about his belief that life begins at conception. And that humans have an obligation to defend a day old fetus equally to our obligation to defend the life of someone who has been born.
“Now, I disagree. I believe that life begins at birth. I believe that our legal obligation towards a born human is different than our legal obligation toward an unborn fetus.
“But on that narrow question of when life begins, I don’t cast any particular judgment on Senator Daines for believing what he believes. His belief system is shared by millions of Americans, not the majority of Americans, but a significant share.
“This disagreement that he and I have over when legally protected life begins though is as significant and as important a disagreement as exists, right? Because it’s about the most foundational questions in human existence.
“What is life? Who decides whether a woman bears a child? Who has control over that woman’s body? Who has control over the most sacred and critical function of a human being, the act of giving birth? It just doesn’t get any more important than that set of questions.
“And given this fundamental disagreement, given the weightiness of these questions, given the large number of Americans who sit on either side of these questions, I come to one simple conclusion: no government, no group of politicians should make this decision for anyone else.
“This decision about whether to abort a pregnancy, so morally complicated, so socially divisive, should and must be left to individuals. In this case, to women to decide.
“Over the course of history, millions have died in fights over another weighty, moral issue: the question of whether God exists and if a god exists, exactly what form that being takes and what it requires of humans.
“Disputes over religion has eradicated entire civilizations. What does this have to do with Roe vs. Wade? Well, our founding fathers decided that there were some topics that were so personal, so subject to disagreement and controversy that government should just be barred from registering judgment.
“That’s part of the reason why our civilization has not been plagued by wars between religious groups, a reality that continues to paralyze societies to this day in other parts of the world because we keep government out of the question of which god is the right god. That’s up to every American to decide for themselves, even though many Americans believe that the consequence of observing or following the wrong god is serious, eternal damnation for some. The stakes are huge when it comes to religion, but government sits on the sidelines.
“To me, that’s an imperfect but instructive corollary to the debate over choice and abortion. The decision about whether to have an abortion is so personal. And the lack of consensus in the country on the question is so unavoidable as to make government intervention just as illegitimate as it would be if government tried to dictate to someone which religion they should follow.
“Now, that’s not the exact route that the Supreme Court traveled to get to the Roe decision. But it helps me understand why from 1973 until today, the decision about whether or not to have an abortion has been a constitutional right of the individual, not the constitutional right of the government to decide.
“Frankly, it’s always been really hard for me to square how Republicans who so readily evangelize about small government, about the importance of putting families and their decision making processes first, about the evil of public sector overreach, are so enthusiastic about the government micromanaging personal decisions about pregnancy or marriage or adoption. Small government is great, I guess for corporations, but it’s not so great when it comes to the most intimate decisions the families make.
“And as I’ve said on this floor before, it’s also hard to take seriously, Republicans’ passionate pleas for this body to defend the existence of an unborn fetus when they seem to care so little about many of the existential threats that are posed to every American after they are born.
“Today, this day, over 100 Americans are going to die from gunshot wounds, from murders and suicides. And whether my Republican colleagues agree with me or not that stricter gun laws is part of the solution to this uniquely American epidemic that plagues those that are born, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a Republican speech dedicated to this crisis on the floor of the Senate. I’ve heard dozens dedicated to the cause of those before. It seems that after birth, life matters a little bit less to some people in this body.
“So that’s what I think, and as I said, I’ll probably get into some hot water for admitting that I understand the arguments that people like Senator Daines make. I don’t agree with his views, but I understand them. And my hope is, is that as we begin this debate over the future of reproductive choice and health in this country, as this debate heats up, because it’s not going away, we’re taking the vote tomorrow. But this is a debate that is going to consume this nation. If the Alito opinion becomes law, which I believe it will.
“My hope is that we’re honest about the complexity of this debate. But the Republicans are equally honest in the claims that they make. And let me just briefly tell you what I mean.
“Today, I heard Republican senators making a whole bunch of claims that are just so ungrounded in truth as to diminish the quality of what should be a very important debate on a very weighty subject. For instance, I heard senators make the claim that the protesters who were protesting outside or near Supreme Court justices homes threatened violence against those justices. That was an explicit claim made by people who came down to this floor who might have heard it on some unreputable website, but it’s not true.
“You can object to protesters, being outside of public officials’ homes – it’s happened to all of us, by the way – but don’t make up threats of violence just because it makes for a better story.
“I heard one senator say that the Women’s Health Protection Act, for which I will proudly vote tomorrow, allows for garage abortions. That’s not true. That’s just plainly not true. Every state requires that abortions be performed in licensed health care facilities and nothing in the bill changes it. Don’t say that just because it makes a better story.
“Many Republicans claim that the bill we’re taking up tomorrow allow abortions up to the date of birth. That’s not true either. The Women’s Health Protection Act, it does codify Roe versus Wade, but Roe only protects a woman’s right to have an abortion without restriction until viability and then afterward protects for the woman’s health for risk of death. The bill simply does not expand the circumstances under which an abortion can be performed beyond what currently exists in case law.
“So I’m going to be honest with my colleagues about the admitted complexities, the political, moral complexities of this debate. But I expect opponents of the bill that we’re debating tomorrow to be equally honest in the arguments they make as well.
“So I’ll have a lot more to say about this topic as we begin what I think is a debate that will consume this nation, rightfully, over the course of the coming weeks and months, but today, I will leave it there.”
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