WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday took to the U.S. Senate floor to call out Senate Republicans’ continued efforts to block legislation that would protect women’s reproductive freedoms in the wake of Dobbs.

Murphy highlighted Republicans’ success in blocking the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act and the Right to Contraception Act: “A few weeks ago, on this floor, Republicans refused to allow a debate on a bill that simply says government can't tell women which states they can travel to in order to receive health care. And yesterday, Republicans blocked proceeding to a bill that simply says that men shouldn't be able to stop women from buying birth control.

Murphy continued: “So, put that all together: You see the pattern emerging here? See what's going on? This is a pretty coordinated industrial-scale effort to bring women under control of the state, to take away decades of rights' accumulation from women, and put them back where they were in the 1940s to the 1930s. This is a massive coordinated effort by Republicans to put more women under government control.”

On the efforts to restrict access to contraception at the state level, Murphy said: “Other Republicans will say that these are imagined crises, that states really aren't going to ban birth control. But just pay attention to what's happening in state legislatures, right now. All over the country, states are trying to restrict women from accessing contraception because — many Republicans will tell you — that protecting life, in their view, involves banning the use of birth control.

“[T]his isn't a fake crisis. This is real. And I'm not making up this new wholesale Republican effort to try to drag women back 100 years and to sideline them in a way that we thought was history. That's all real too. And we will give Republicans the chance, over and over again, to prove that wrong,” Murphy concluded.

A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

MURPHY: “Mr. President, I came down to the floor to talk about something that happened yesterday, as well: that was an effort by Democrats to get a bill on the floor that would protect women's access to contraception. And Republicans, predictably, blocked that bill from receiving consideration. And I want to talk about the broader picture of what's going on here today.

“J.D. Vance is a candidate for the United States Senate. He's a Republican star; he's maybe the party's highest profile candidate running for the Senate. And here's what he said about men who beat up their wives. He said, ‘One of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace’ was convincing people in unhappy or violent marriages that getting divorced would make them happier. Women should stop complaining, he suggests, about getting the crap beat out of them. Stop trying to leave abusive husbands and just stick it out.’

“Senator Hawley, a few months ago, gave a whole speech explaining how men have certain virtues critical to the maintenance of the American Republic — like aggression and competitiveness and independence — that women don't have in equal measure. He made a pretty unapologetic case for the superiority of men over women. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who is the biggest draw in the Republican Party right now; nobody gets a bigger crowd than she does — she says women should just accept that they are ‘the weaker sex.’

“A few weeks ago, on this floor, Republicans refused to allow a debate on a bill that simply says government can't tell women which states they can travel to in order to receive health care. And yesterday, Republicans blocked proceeding to a bill that simply says that men shouldn't be able to stop women from buying birth control.

“So, put that all together: You see the pattern emerging here? See what's going on? This is a pretty coordinated industrial-scale effort to bring women under control of the state, to take away decades of rights' accumulation from women, and put them back where they were in the 1940s to the 1930s. This is a massive coordinated effort by Republicans to put more women under government control. No more abortion services, no more divorces from your abusive spouses, no more, driving your car wherever you want. No more birth control. Women are on their way back to becoming second-class citizens. That's what the cumulative agenda looks like here. And I don't think I'm paranoid. I don't think I'm over reading the tea leaves. I'm just picking up the pieces that Republicans keep putting down day after day after day.

“I know Republicans will dispute this characterization. But if they do, we're going to continually give them the chance to prove us wrong. Vote for a bill that says states can't ban birth control. Vote for legislation that says states can't tell women where they can drive. What we're asking for is — not an expansion of women's rights — just the protection to make sure that we don't take these big leaps backwards.

“Other Republicans will say that these are imagined crises, that states really aren't going to ban birth control. But just pay attention to what's happening in state legislatures, right now. All over the country, states are trying to restrict women from accessing contraception because — many Republicans will tell you — that protecting life, in their view, involves banning the use of birth control. In Texas. The state already bans its family planning centers from distributing birth control. In Missouri, conservatives are trying to block health providers, who receive federal funds, from prescribing contraception. And the Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision basically previewed that it is likely to strike down the right to birth control sometime soon.

“So, this isn't a fake crisis. This is real. And I'm not making up this new wholesale Republican effort to try to drag women back 100 years and to sideline them in a way that we thought was history. That's all real too. And we will give Republicans the chance, over and over again, to prove that wrong.

“I yield the floor.”

 

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