Ayanna Pressley: “If we defeat the previous question, we will bring up legislation to protect a woman's right to make her own healthcare…”

“If we defeat the previous question, we will bring up legislation to protect a woman's right to make her own healthcare decisions, the Women's Health Protection Act. This is necessary because Republican bills being brought to the floor share a common goal, to limit access to reproductive healthcare for those who need it most. Like so many of the bills this Republican majority has advanced, these bills are intentionally designed to mislead with biased and inaccurate information and to shame those who seek abortion care. Republicans are continuing their politically violent, thinly veiled misinformation campaign to ultimately enact a national abortion ban, a forced birth mandate. Now, they are using our pregnant students as their pawns. The young woman in college making the life-changing decision on when and how to start a family deserves comprehensive and medically accurate information. Do not fall for the okey-doke. They are playing with people's lives instead of trying to save and change and improve them. Republicans don't care about the people, certainly not pregnant students. They have consistently undermined access to contraception, defunded on-campus childcare, and excluded information on essential abortion care from the bill they want us to vote for. In fact, Republicans do not care about any pregnant person when they seek to expand crisis pregnancy centers. Since my days on the Boston City Council, I have fought to stop these sham clinics.…”