Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “I thank my esteemed colleagues, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, for hosting this week's Special Order hour on an…”

“I thank my esteemed colleagues, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, for hosting this week's Special Order hour on an issue that is so critically important to all people who want healthcare and need equitable access to reproductive healthcare and justice in the United States. Right now, we are facing a critical juncture in the fight for healthcare and reproductive healthcare in the United States. Louisiana lawmakers designed a law to push abortion out of reach. It compounds the financial barriers of people struggling to make ends meet that they already face when seeking care, including the decades-old Hyde amendment that has long denied affordable abortion care for low-income people. When I think about this issue and when any of us think about this issue, we bring our whole selves to the conversation. When I think about the issue of reproductive healthcare, I bring so much of my experience working in hospitality in restaurants. Working in restaurants is a front line for sexual harassment and sexual assault. Working as a waitress, many of my colleagues were sexually harassed and sexually assaulted. There were days when many of them did not have access to reproductive healthcare or even prenatal healthcare. One woman I know was pregnant and had no healthcare, and she had to show up at free clinics for hours at a hospital waiting for a new doctor every time.…”