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All Democrats voted against a sham bill that Republicans disguised as protecting babies, but what it was really about was restricting access to choice.
Sen. Patty Murray explained the bill before the vote:
Republicans are focused on just about everything except how to lower costs and make regular people’s lives better. This week, they are not rolling out a health care plan or telling us how they’re going to lower the cost of groceries.
Instead, Republicans are pushing more unpopular anti abortion extremism. And Republicans are still peddling debunked lies about how abortion works and the people who get them. And trying to pass, through the U. S. Congress, a disgraceful sham of a bill that totally misrepresents the hard and painful choices that women face when a pregnancy is medically complicated.
Let’s talk about the bill that the Republicans are bringing to the floor today. Because it is really important for people to understand what it is. Senator Lankford’s bill, which has 44 co sponsors, would create a new government mandate that would override the best judgment of grieving families who find out their fetus has a fatal condition.
And it would create new medically unnecessary barriers for doctors and patients at a time when doctors already have their hands tied when it comes to basic reproductive health care. And let’s be clear. It is already illegal to kill a baby. We know that. To suggest otherwise is a deliberate and callous smear against providers and patients who find themselves in heartbreaking, traumatic situations.
It is heinous. Absurd suggestion now, Americans are rightly worried about what will happen to their reproductive rights under total Republican control of government, and that’s because they are painfully aware of what is happening already every day because of Republican bans, women are being denied the care they need.
They’re being told they have to get sicker first and told they have to go to a different state. They’re told they have to stay pregnant. Even if they don’t want to, or even if it kills them. That is the state of women’s health in states across America today. And it is profoundly alarming that now, Republicans are doubling down here to make things even worse.
During the first week of Trump’s presidency, this is what Republicans are focused on. Attacking women, criminalizing abortion, criminalizing doctors, and lying about abortion. Republicans obviously don’t care about the cost of groceries. They aren’t working to make life more affordable for families before or after a baby is born.
The bill went down to defeat 52-47, but it speaks volumes about the real Trump agenda that on day three of his term, Republicans took action against choice.
Senate Democrats are off to a strong start, and the American people can expect the Democrats to stand in unity against this extremism.
Republicans in Congress still think you are stupid.
The Republican controlled federal government has still proposed nothing to lower prices. Instead, they are implementing an agenda that they didn’t run on and that many people never had the chance to vote on.
What do you think about the success of Senate Democrats? Share your thoughts in the comments below.