Tammy Baldwin: “I rise today to mark 3 years since half of America was stripped of their reproductive freedom. That is 3 years of women…”

“I rise today to mark 3 years since half of America was stripped of their reproductive freedom. That is 3 years of women having fewer constitutional rights and freedoms in this country than their mothers and grandmothers; 3 years of women being forced to travel hours out of State to access basic care; and 3 years of Americans unable to make their own choices about their own bodies, their own health, their own families, their own future. In Wisconsin, women don't have to imagine what the consequences of Roe v. Wade being overturned would be like. We lived it. For 15 months, in my State, women were sent back to live under a law that was passed before the Civil War. Yes, you heard me correctly--a law that was passed in 1849, 70 years before women would get the right to vote and only 1 year after the State of Wisconsin became a State. Women who wanted to control their bodies had to drive hours. They had to arrange childcare, take time off of work, and pay for lodging just to access healthcare. Other pregnant women in our State bled in hospital parking lots for hours until they were on the verge of death before they were legally allowed to receive care.”