UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 631
Congressional Record Vol. 169, No. 108
(Senate - June 21, 2023) PDF
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
The Senator from Mississippi.
Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Madam President, this bill presents a solution in
search of a problem. Unfortunately, it appears that the intent of this
legislation is to treat abortion as healthcare, to prevent pro-life
entities from sponsoring ads designed to help provide women and girls
with trustworthy support during pregnancy, and to make it harder for
States to enforce their own laws protecting life and the most
vulnerable.
When it comes to ensuring patient privacy and healthcare, I believe
there are bipartisan solutions to be found that we can all agree on.
One-sided efforts to promote abortion are not the way for us to find
common ground on this issue.
I would also like to point out that this bill has not received a
hearing or markup in the Commerce Committee, which would be a great
opportunity to have.
I would like to turn now to recognize that this Saturday will mark
the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Dobbs
v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. I am incredibly proud that this
victory for the pro-life movement, reversing the moral stain of Roe v.
Wade, came out of my State of Mississippi. I am amazed and grateful
that in God's sovereign plan, a law introduced by my friend,
Mississippi State Representative Becky Currie, ultimately achieved what
I and so many have prayed for, for 50 years now, to restore the
sanctity of life.
My friend, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, our State's
solicitor general, Scott Stewart, and the many others in the AG's
office worked tirelessly to represent our State's direct challenge to
Roe.
After a draft of the Dobbs majority opinion was shamefully leaked,
the conservative Justices resisted disgraceful intimidation tactics and
threats to their own lives. They stayed true to their judicial oaths to
uphold and defend the Constitution.
The Supreme Court recognized correctly in Dobbs that the Constitution
does not confer a right to abortion and that Roe was ``egregiously
wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it
was decided.''
While the Dobbs decision did not end abortion in America, it took a
monumental step in returning the issue back into the hands of the
people and their elected representatives. Today, as a result, 14 States
are protecting unborn children through all 9 months of pregnancy.
Several others now protect babies at the point where they have a
heartbeat, at 6 weeks, and still others at 12 weeks. One recent study
found that there were more than 24,000 unborn children saved from
abortion in the first 9 months since Dobbs. That is 24,000 miracles,
because that is what a child is--a miracle.
But it is not just the States that can protect life after Dobbs. We
in Congress also have a responsibility to protect life and stop the
Democrats' extreme pro-abortion agenda.
It saddens me deeply that Democrats in Congress continue to advocate
for appalling legislation that would impose legalized abortion on
demand up until to the moment of birth across all 50 States. Their
legislation is even more radical than Roe was and would eliminate even
the most modest pro-life protections, like parental involvement laws
and bans on sex-selective abortions. Democrats cannot name a single
limit on abortion they support--not one.
The American people, however, reject this extreme position. A new
Tarrance Group poll this month found that three-fourths of voters
oppose allowing abortions through all 9 months of pregnancy and support
at least some limits to abortion.
More Americans continue to reject abortion when they learn more about
the child in the womb--when they can hear the child's heartbeat, when
they can see them suck their thumbs and yawn in an ultrasound, and when
they learn that they can feel pain.
Despite this, the Biden administration's FDA and Department of
Justice continue to allow the abortion industry to obstruct the will of
pro-life States by illegally flooding the mail with do-it-yourself
abortion pills, turning post offices into abortion centers. These
actions not only endanger women's lives and their health, but they
violate longstanding Federal laws that clearly prohibit the mailing of
abortion drugs.
Finally, we also must advance policies to support pregnant mothers in
choosing life. In particular, we need to support the work of pregnancy
centers. More than 2,700 pregnancy centers across the country provide
critical medical and material support for women and families facing
unplanned pregnancies to choose life rather than abortion.
This is the promise of the Declaration of Independence: that all men
are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the inalienable
right to life.
Thanks to the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, 1 year ago this
week, we can finally begin the hard work to make good on the promise
for unborn Americans too.
Finally, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.