Kim Schrier: “I thank my friend and colleague, Representative Leger Fernandez, for her commitment to ensuring women's access to…”

“I thank my friend and colleague, Representative Leger Fernandez, for her commitment to ensuring women's access to abortion care, no matter where they are in this country. This is because extreme Republicans are doubling down on their out-of- touch--and I will repeat--extreme attacks on women as they march toward a national abortion ban. Make no mistake. By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court deprived millions of women the freedom to make one of the most personal and important decisions of their lives. As a physician, in fact, a pediatrician, I understand that reproductive healthcare, including abortion, is part of women's healthcare. There is simply no place for politics in the exam room. This is a personal decision between a woman and her doctor. It is not a government decision, and government should not be meddling in healthcare. This is a slippery slope, as we are already seeing. When there is a claim by my colleagues, by my Republican colleagues, that life begins at conception, the moment a sperm touches an egg, boy, that is a slippery slope. We have already seen what that has done to IVF care. Parents who desperately want children are unable to have families now in Alabama because of this ruling. This is interfering with even more aspects of women's healthcare. Next is contraception. Again, make no mistake. As one of two pro- choice woman doctors in Congress, you can count on me to do everything I can to protect women's access to safe abortion. Mr.…”