| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Biological Reality Debate
00:11:48
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| In some times, parents and women. | ||
| And in two of the cases that we are, in fact, prosecuting, shield laws are blocking our ability to do that. | ||
| And I cannot understand why any governor would refuse our extradition papers so that we can prosecute someone who coerced their child to have an abortion. | ||
| Chairman Cassidy, I see my time has expired. | ||
| I appreciate you for facing this issue head on. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Rooney. | ||
| And now Senator Kim. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| Thank you to the three of you for showing up here. | ||
| Dr. Verma, I'd like to start with you. | ||
| There's a phrase that's been that you mentioned, and some of my colleagues have that I'd like to just kind of dive in deeper, which is about these maternal care deserts. | ||
| So if you can just explain to us, explain to the American people the challenge that we're facing with maternal care deserts. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Thank you for that question. | ||
| So we've seen that hospitals and clinics are closing because of many of the changes that we're seeing with cuts to Medicaid, making it harder for hospitals to stay open, clinics to stay open. | ||
| And it is increasing the distances that people have to travel to get to an OBGYN. | ||
| So there are some women in rural parts of the country that have to travel over 100 miles to get to the closest OBGYN. | ||
| These are counties where there are no hospitals that offer obstetric services, birth centers, no obstetricians, gynecologists, certified nurse, midwives. | ||
| Do you know how many counties there are? | ||
| In the United States, it's about 35% of counties. | ||
| In some states, like Georgia, it's even more. | ||
| It's exactly right. | ||
| 36%. | ||
| I was calculating over 1,100 counties in the United States. | ||
| You know, for me, I'm grateful that in New Jersey we have greater density and more access in this, but I am trying to think through what is needed around the entire country when I'm thinking about millions of women of childbearing age that do not have this type of access. | ||
| And then the conversation that we're having here, I mean, I just keep thinking about like, I hope we have a hearing on this. | ||
| You know, I hope we have a hearing on just the challenges that so many women are facing and the difficulty that is going forward. | ||
| And as you were saying, am I correct that this seems like it's getting worse right now in terms of just the lack of access and hospitals closing and other issues? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| It's definitely getting worse. | ||
| I took care of a patient recently who she was a young woman, came to see me, chose to continue her pregnancy, wanted to support her in that, but she said, I can't get to an OBGYN. | ||
| There is no OBGYN in my part of the state. | ||
| I don't know how I'm going to get prenatal care. | ||
| That makes people less safe. | ||
| And even within these areas, I mean, who are the types of women that would have the greatest struggle within these deserts? | ||
| People that may not have access to transportation, other things like that that you've, I'm sure, come across? | ||
| Yeah, it's people that are already facing burdens to access the health care system. | ||
| So people that don't have insurance or have Medicaid that is getting additionally cut. | ||
| People, young people, people from marginalized communities that are already facing barriers. | ||
| This is just exacerbating the situation for them. | ||
| Well, look, it's something that I think we really as a committee need to commit ourselves towards. | ||
| If we're talking about care for women, obviously a lot of disagreements on very important issues, but I hope we can all agree upon the need for greater access to be able to be able to reverse this trend of growing maternal care deserts. | ||
| One other implication I just wanted to throw into the mix here is just the question that comes with this undermining of FDA and the trust that I think is being eroded with these types of challenges that we're facing with. | ||
| So Dr. Verma, I guess I just wanted to ask you your thoughts of what would happen when it comes to whether drug developers and others that are seeking or closely watching this hearing right now. | ||
| What happens if the American people lose trust in the FDA, if we lose trust in the FDA's ability to follow science and approve drugs based on safety and efficacy? | ||
| Thank you for that question. | ||
| You're absolutely right. | ||
| This has implications for a whole range of things. | ||
| Science and evidence need to guide medicine, not politics. | ||
| What we're seeing is a political agenda that is dictating what options are available for patients, and that is not just going to affect access to abortion care and miscarriage management. | ||
| It has implications for birth control, vaccines. | ||
| We're already seeing the impact of vaccines. | ||
| This is far-reaching when we start to let politics dictate medicine. | ||
| The amount of outreach that I got regarding this hearing across the board from well beyond issues related to these types of medications, just about the issues about where our country is heading towards when it comes to trust in medicine and the development. | ||
| I just want to point that out because the ramifications are very far-reaching and ones that could very well affect many, many other drugs. | ||
| And with that, I'll yield back. | ||
| Senator Hawley. | ||
| I think it's science-based, by the way, that men can't have babies, but that's going to be something. | ||
| Senator Hawley, don't worry about it, Senator Hawley. | ||
| That was Senator Moody. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Since you bring it up, why don't we just start there? | ||
| Dr. Verma, I wasn't sure I understood your answer to Senator Moody a moment ago. | ||
| Do you think that men can get pregnant? | ||
| I hesitated there because I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or what the goal was. | ||
| I mean, I do take care of patients with different identities. | ||
| I take care of many women. | ||
| I take care of people with different identities. | ||
| And so that's where I paused. | ||
| I think, I wasn't sure where you were going with that. | ||
| Well, the goal is just the truth. | ||
| So can men get pregnant? | ||
| Again, the reason I paused there is I'm not really sure what the goal of the question is. | ||
| The goal is just to establish a biological reality. | ||
| You just said a moment ago that science and evidence should control, not politics. | ||
| So let's just test that proposition. | ||
| Can men get pregnant? | ||
| I take care of people with many identities, but there are many women that can get pregnant. | ||
| I do take care of people that don't identify as women. | ||
| Can men get pregnant? | ||
| Again, as I'm saying. | ||
| Let me just remind you, you testified to a moment ago. | ||
| Science and evidence should control, not politics. | ||
| So, can men get pregnant? | ||
| You're a doctor, right? | ||
| I agree. | ||
| Science and evidence should guide medicine. | ||
| Do science and evidence tell us that men can get pregnant? | ||
| Biological men. | ||
| Can they get pregnant? | ||
| I also think yes-no questions like this are a political tool. | ||
| No, yes-no questions are about the truth, doctor. | ||
| Let's not make a mockery of this proceeding. | ||
| This is about science and evidence. | ||
| And I'm asking you, you know, the United States Supreme Court just heard arguments yesterday at great length on this question. | ||
| This is not a hypothetical question. | ||
| This is not theoretical. | ||
| It affects real people in their real lives. | ||
| And you're here as an expert called by the other side as an expert. | ||
| And you've been telling us that you follow, right, you're a doctor, and you follow the science and the evidence. | ||
| So I just want to know, based on the science, can men get pregnant? | ||
| That's a yes or no question. | ||
| It really is, I think. | ||
| I think you're trying to reduce the complexity of philosophy. | ||
| I'm not. | ||
| I'm trying to get, it's not complex. | ||
| I'm trying to get to an answer and I'm trying to test, frankly, your veracity as a medical professional and as a scientist. | ||
| Can men get pregnant? | ||
| I think you're also conflating male with pregnancy. | ||
| No, I'm not conflating male and female. | ||
| They're two different things. | ||
| There's biological men and there's biological women. | ||
| And I want to know: can men get pregnant? | ||
| What you were talking about is biological biological males. | ||
| This isn't hard, Doctor. | ||
| Can men get pregnant? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you that is not coming from a place of trying to be polarized and pushed. | ||
| I'm not trying to be polarizing. | ||
| I'm trying to ask, I think it is extraordinary that we are here in a hearing about science and about women. | ||
| And for the record, it's women who get pregnant, not men. | ||
| We are here about the safety of women and science that shows that this abortion drug causes adverse health events in 11% of cases. | ||
| That's 22 times greater than the FDA label, another fact you haven't acknowledged. | ||
| And yet you won't even acknowledge the basic reality that biological men don't get pregnant. | ||
| There's a difference between biological men and biological women. | ||
| I just, I don't know how we can take you seriously and your claims to be a person of science if you won't level with this on this basic issue. | ||
| I thought we were past all of this, frankly. | ||
| I can't believe we're still here talking about this. | ||
| I am a person of science, and I'm also someone here who's here to represent the complex experiences of my patients. | ||
| And I don't think polarized language or questions serve that goal. | ||
| I don't think they serve the American people. | ||
| It is not polarizing to say that there is a scientific difference between men and women. | ||
| And I want this to be clear and for the record. | ||
| It is not polarizing to say that women are a biological reality and should be treated and protected as such. | ||
| That is not polarizing. | ||
| That is truth. | ||
| It is also, by the way, the United States Constitution, which offers unique protections to women in a variety of circumstances as women. | ||
| And your refusal to recognize women as women and men as men is deeply corrosive to science, to public trust, and yes, to constitutional protections for women as women. | ||
| And I just, I think it's extraordinary that you would sit here and advance a political agenda that has been thoroughly discredited and rejected by the American people in this forum. | ||
| And I'm glad we had this exchange because it is exceptionally clarifying. | ||
| It is also in many ways quite depressing. | ||
| I see that my time is nearly expired. | ||
| I just want to thank the other witnesses for being here. | ||
| Thank you for protecting women and children. | ||
| Thank you for your valiant efforts. | ||
| Thank you for following the science. | ||
| And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this hearing. | ||
| Senator Olsa Brooks. | ||
| Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. | ||
| I would be remiss if I didn't start by saying I heard my colleague very passionately talk about the fact that this is about the safety of women. | ||
| I want to make it clear that this administration and this secretary could care less about women, men, or children. | ||
| In fact, they don't care about humans. | ||
| And I want to be very clear. | ||
| I could go down and delineate how that is true, but that is not the subject of today's hearing. | ||
| But for the past year, we have all watched Secretary Kennedy and this administration peddle conspiracy theories and junk science to dismantle public health structures in this country. | ||
| So I don't want anyone lecturing about the safety of women. | ||
| These people don't care about humans. | ||
| Last week, in fact, we saw the latest example with Kennedy recklessly eliminating the CDC's recommendation for a number of critical childhood vaccinations and very alarmingly, including the flu shot. | ||
|
Peer-Reviewed Flaws Exposed
00:05:19
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| In the midst of a flu, basically a surge in a super flu, this is the moment that this man decides to eliminate the flu shot for children as a recommendation. | ||
| Just like with the pediatric vaccine schedule, changing the rules on FDA-approved drugs without scientific input, legitimate evidence on safety risk, or transparency will cause, we know, unnecessary fear for patients. | ||
| RFK's same playbook is being used to target misopristone, a safe and effective medication that has been approved by the FDA for over 25 years. | ||
| Now, take all of the fear-mongering and myths' truths that RFK spewed earlier last year about measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines, and take the fact that RFK agreed to reopen the case on Mifipristone this fall, conducting its own very fake review of the evidence of safety and efficacy of this drug. | ||
| That review was based in part on a study released last summer by the Ethics and Public Policy Center. | ||
| Now, Dr. Verma, as a practicing physician, I would imagine that you read peer-reviewed research and journals fairly regularly. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| Yes, I do. | ||
| And is the Ethics and Public Policy Center a peer-reviewed or rigorous medical journal? | ||
| It is not. | ||
| That is a policy paper that you are referring to. | ||
| And in fact, EPPC's own stated mission is to, and I quote, apply the riches of the Jewish and Christian traditions to contemporary questions of law, culture, and politics in pursuit of America's continued civic and cultural renewal. | ||
| Some of their recent publications include a post entitled, quote, Good Riddings, Governor Waltz. | ||
| Quote, another one is Liberal Women Have Abandoned Marriage. | ||
| Another one, ending male order abortion would fulfill three Trump campaign promises and the rights of women, a natural law approach. | ||
| This is clearly not the work of unbiased science, but an organization with a political agenda, one based on the last publication I mentioned that promotes that women are, in their view, inferior and should submit to men. | ||
| And yet their work is being cited by state attorneys general and members of this committee to roll back access to a drug that millions of women have used safely for decades. | ||
| So, Dr. Verma, was EPPC's Mifipristone study peer-reviewed? | ||
| It was not. | ||
| And did this study mix in data from miscarriage management and IUD insertion procedures that have absolutely nothing to do with abortion care? | ||
| It did mix in a lot of things that were not directly related, and also they were not transparent about their methods. | ||
| So it's actually hard to figure out what exactly happened. | ||
| Any peer-reviewed study needs to reveal their methods, their data sources. | ||
| They did not do that, and so it's very unclear the specifics, but we can tell that patients that were coming to the emergency room, for example, for routine care because they couldn't get care otherwise in their communities or patients with completely unrelated conditions were counted. | ||
| And so you're right. | ||
| So this study included completely unrelated conditions as complications of mispristone, right? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| And how would the inclusion of this data undermine outcomes? | ||
| It significantly over-exaggerates complication rates by again counting things that are not actually complications of Mifipristone. | ||
| Let me ask you one other question. | ||
| Time is tolling. | ||
| In contrast to this sham study, can you describe the body of evidence of medical reviews and published clinical trials reviewed that review the safety and efficacy of mifipristone? | ||
| Sorry, so hard to say. | ||
| Yes, absolutely. | ||
| We have over 100 years of high-quality, peer-reviewed data from multiple journals, multiple researchers. | ||
| And based on that data, I want to highlight one thing quickly about the FDA label that was strategically left out: that the label specifically says there has been no causal relationship between the use of Miffupristone and mesoprostal and any of the complications listed. | ||
| And I'll say this last thing ago: this study from this conservative think tank is not, in RFK's words, gold standard science. | ||
| It is self-published, lacks transparency, cannot be replicated, is rife with conflicts of interest, and includes flawed data. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Senator Markey. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| It is very difficult for me to ignore the irony and the hypocrisy of my colleagues on the other side organizing this hearing today. | ||
| While my Republican colleagues framed today's hearing on, quote, protecting women, they don't appear to have cared about protecting women and families while they stripped health care from millions of people last year. | ||
|
Objections Without Objection
00:15:14
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| Democrats warned that blocking the extension of the ACA premium tax credits would lead to skyrocketing premiums for 22 million Americans and their families, and that nearly 5 million people, particularly women and people of color, would lose their health insurance. | ||
| But Republicans did nothing to protect women then. | ||
| When Republicans and Trump added restrictions and paperwork requirements to Medicaid, Democrats warned that could cause millions to lose their health insurance, including 2 million young women. | ||
| But Republicans did nothing to protect those young women. | ||
| When Republicans and Trump cut almost $1 trillion from Medicaid to fund tax breaks for billionaires and CEOs, I warned in my study then that those cuts would put 300 rural hospitals at risk of closure, having to cut services like labor and delivery, making childbirth more dangerous for women in our country. | ||
| But Republicans did not care about women then either. | ||
| Now my Republican colleagues have spent all morning spreading dangerous lies about a medication that we have known is safe for over a quarter of a century. | ||
| And why are they doing that? | ||
| Because this was never about protecting women. | ||
| It is about controlling women. | ||
| Republicans have shown us that they will not stop until there is a national ban on abortion. | ||
| And today's attacks are just another step towards that national ban. | ||
| I'm proud that Massachusetts has some of the strongest abortion protections in the nation. | ||
| I heard from some patients who traveled to Massachusetts for treatment. | ||
| Their stories are a testament to the need for abortion protections nationwide. | ||
| One said she didn't want to risk another pregnancy after experiencing complications during her last pregnancy. | ||
| Another said she was trying to escape a violent relationship, and pregnancy would make it harder for her to leave. | ||
| Another said she had been raped. | ||
| People shouldn't have to travel out of state to get basic health care. | ||
| So, Dr. Verma, can you speak to how abortion bans impact how soon people can get care, both in states with bans and states with protections? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Thank you for that question. | ||
| So we know overall in the United States about 90% of abortion care is happening in the first trimester, but that is being pushed actually later into pregnancy because of abortion bans and restrictions and patients not being able to get care in their communities in a timely manner because of abortion bans and restrictions. | ||
| They're having to figure out how to get transportation together, get all of the resources together, find a way to get to a place where they can get the care they need. | ||
| And what are the harms to people who have to travel long distances? | ||
| It is a huge burden on many people, particularly people that are already facing challenges accessing the health care system. | ||
| This adds additional burdens for them and again, adds additional time before they can get the care that they need. | ||
| Yeah, so just let me be clear. | ||
| This debate is not just about miffopristone and medication abortion. | ||
| This is about health and freedom and all of the health care system we put together to protect women. | ||
| Freedom to live your life with dignity, autonomy, and control over your family's future. | ||
| And it is absolutely imperative that we continue to fight for abortion rights to give women the ability to make the key decisions for their own health, for their own future. | ||
| And that is really what is at the center of this hearing today. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Kane. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You gave me an opportunity to cut in, you know, a long time ago, but I want to wait my turn. | ||
| This is a very important hearing. | ||
| And Dr. Webenhorst, your opening line in your testimony was something very similar to what Dr. Verma said. | ||
| Abortion is an important subject of intense interest, debate, and legislative action among the people of the United States. | ||
| That is an understatement. | ||
| And you both essentially talked about it as an important issue and as a complicated one, and as one on which people have very strong feelings, and one in which the stories, those that have been shared today by many, are important to hear. | ||
| But I do agree with my colleagues that the hearing really is about a national abortion ban. | ||
| Sharing stories is important, but this committee is a busy committee with a huge jurisdiction. | ||
| And there's a million hearings we could have, and many I wish we were having, but we're having this hearing because of the desire of the many in the Senate majority to do a national abortion ban. | ||
| The effort to overturn Roe versus Wade was successful in the Supreme Court, and that has led many states like Louisiana and others to put very strict bans on abortion in their state laws. | ||
| Attorney General, you talked about a bipartisan consensus in Louisiana. | ||
| Virginia has reached a different bipartisan consensus. | ||
| I note that Louisiana legislature in the House 27 percent female and in the Senate 12 percent female. | ||
| And I'm not bragging about Congress. | ||
| We're only 28 percent female. | ||
| But the decision that this will be returned to elected representatives is cold comfort to a lot of women who don't see themselves represented in legislative bodies, but it is what it is. | ||
| States can make their own decision, but that's not enough for advocates, and that's not enough for many of my colleagues. | ||
| The fact that states, many states all over this country, are either banning or significantly restricting abortion rights is not enough. | ||
| So now let's go after the primary method that is being used by women, even in states like Virginia, that have said we trust women to make these decisions for themselves. | ||
| Let's go after that too. | ||
| And so again, every story is an important one to think about. | ||
| But in a committee like this that could be having hearings on a million things, the fact that we're having this hearing in the aftermath of Dobbs essentially with state legislatures wiping out abortion rights in much of the country, now let's go after the chief method by which women in states where abortion is lawful decide how to handle their pregnancy and to terminate a pregnancy. | ||
| I just see the agenda here. | ||
| And the other thing that I notice as I'm talking about stories is there have been a lot of stories about coercion. | ||
| Coercion is awful. | ||
| Coercion should be prosecuted, as the Attorney General said, and we ought to. | ||
| But it seems to me that like the opposite of coercion is choice. | ||
| If we're against coercion, why would we be anti-choice? | ||
| I mean, I think these are words called antonyms. | ||
| They're opposites. | ||
| If coercion is a problem, and I credit that it is. | ||
| I credit that the stories that have been told are true. | ||
| They ought to be prosecuted. | ||
| But it doesn't seem to me that the response to coercion is to more tightly control the choices women make about their own lives. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce, with respect to the science, there was an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in a case following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine versus FDA. | ||
| And it's an amicus brief from the title of it is Brief of Over 300 Reproductive Health Researches as a MIC Curiae in Support of Petitioners about the scientific studies on Mifipristo. | ||
| I'd like to introduce it into the record. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| And I'd like to introduce something else in the record. | ||
| Dr. Rubenhorst, I read the beginning of your first line in your testimony, but I didn't read the end. | ||
| And now I'm going to read the full line. | ||
| Abortion is an important subject of intense interest, debate, and legislative action among the people of the United States and their elected representatives. | ||
| That's the part I read, but the remainder of the sentence is this. | ||
| And due consideration should be given to its risks and purported benefits. | ||
| Not to its risks and benefits, not to its purported risks and purported benefits, to its risks and purported benefits. | ||
| So you tell us, you know, right at the beginning that you would be in the camp that would be against abortion under any circumstances. | ||
| And just on the topic of risks and purported benefits, let me introduce a second item into the record that I'm just going to read and then I'll conclude. | ||
| Published today in ProPublica, a pregnant woman at risk of heart failure couldn't get urgent treatment. | ||
| She died waiting for an abortion. | ||
| And I'll just read two paragraphs. | ||
| When C.G. Graham visited a cardiologist on November 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. | ||
| She was having another episode of AFib, rapid irregular heartbeat. | ||
| The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure. | ||
| In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham's heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. | ||
| But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. | ||
| After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn't offer to shock her. | ||
| Graham texted her friend about the cardiologist, said she can't cardiovert being pregnant. | ||
| She died of heart failure, leaving a two-year-old because she lived in a state that would not give her cardiovascular care because she was pregnant and would not allow her to end the pregnancy so she could remain being a mother to her two-year-old son. | ||
| These stories are really important, and I think women can make these decisions for themselves. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| Yield back. | ||
| And I'd like to introduce that article for the record. | ||
| Without objection, there was an implication that Louisiana's law was somehow influenced because of the gender makeup of our legislature. | ||
| I will note the woman that the Democratic state senator who wrote the law was Katrina Jackson, and she was the driving force behind the law. | ||
| Again, Democrat and for what it's worth, African American. | ||
| So, just to stipulate that for the record. | ||
| And also, the health of the mother is an exception for abortion restrictions in Louisiana, and I'm sure it's elsewhere too. | ||
| So, in this particular case, I'm not quite sure as a physician what the thinking was, but I just say that for the record. | ||
| It was a story from North Carolina, and you're right about Louisiana. | ||
| Rape and incest is not an exception, but the death of the mother would be an exception under Louisiana law. | ||
| Senator Hickenlooper. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| And I'd like to start just for the record. | ||
| I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record letters from board-certified physicians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, ACOG, in Colorado. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Thank you all for being here. | ||
| This is a hard issue, obviously. | ||
| And the reason that we say that health care decisions should be between a woman and her doctor, or so many of us say that, is because so often these are deeply painful, challenging personal circumstances. | ||
| You know, roughly 10 to 20 percent of clinically recognized pregnancies unfortunately end up in miscarriage. | ||
| Mifipristone, along with mesoprostol, are gold standard interventions to manage early pregnancy loss. | ||
| And Dr. Verma, you've been through this. | ||
| You have some experience of this. | ||
| Are you worried that the constant attacks on this medication are going to leave millions of people who are losing a wanted pregnancy, but they won't have, they'll be denied options. | ||
| And you please tell your own story if you can. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| We know, as I have said, that Miffy Pristone, combined with mesoprostol for women that want medication management, is the most effective treatment option. | ||
| For many people in the country, that option is not available because of restrictions and bans on these medications. | ||
| I was lucky when I had my experience to be in Massachusetts where I could access these medications, but for many people in the country, that's not the case. | ||
| What we're seeing, for example, in Louisiana with the controlled substance laws, is that people can't get either of these medications when they're experiencing miscarriages. | ||
| And I also want to go back to one thing. | ||
| I do want to thank both of you for recognizing, Senator Kane, Senator, that this is complicated. | ||
| As a woman myself and someone who takes care of many women, in addition to people who don't identify as women, exchanges like the very polarized one that you saw really do a disservice to complexity and to people's lives. | ||
| And I just wanted to say that I'm very happy to have these nuanced productive conversations with anyone. | ||
| I really do think that serves the American people better because this is complicated and we really need to honor that for our patients and for our fellow Americans. | ||
| Right. | ||
| Well, and building on that, I want to reflect back on when I was governor in Colorado, we got a grant for a five-year, very ambitious statewide effort to vastly, as much as universally possible, but vastly expand long-acting reversible contraception to as many young women that wanted it. | ||
| And over an eight-year period, we reduced unintended pregnancies by almost 60%. | ||
| And so this is not only a major step forward to expand more access to all forms of reproductive care and reduce gene pregnancy and reduce, obviously, teen abortion, but it also saves $70 million over that whole process because so often those teenage pregnancies are not well, they don't get sufficient medical attention and they end up with premature births, | ||
|
Common Ground on Reproductive Rights
00:06:51
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| very expensive situations. | ||
| How can comprehensive reproductive health, reproductive health care education and planning, such as what we did in Colorado, how can that help increase access for all women to their rights? | ||
| Thank you for that question. | ||
| I absolutely support people having access to whatever birth control options are right for them. | ||
| And having access to the full range of health care helps make people healthier. | ||
| I think this also ties into a lot that we've heard about reproductive coercion. | ||
| We've heard stories that are terrible. | ||
| You know, I've also seen many patients who can't access birth control, can't access abortion care, and end up having to stay in abusive relationships for that reason. | ||
| I could tell you many stories, which is why the issue of reproductive coercion is so important to me. | ||
| And I strongly believe that making sure health care, all health care, is more accessible to people is one of the solutions in addition to figuring out how else we can better support people. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I'll leave us with the thought that just last week the Wyoming State Supreme Court found unconstitutional or their extreme bans on abortion law violated their own Constitution because after the Affordable Care Act was passed, | ||
| there was a statewide initiative to say that they viewed that the Affordable Care Act as impringing on their right to decide their own health care. | ||
| And now that has been reversed, obviously the sentiment has changed. | ||
| And as the Wyoming State Supreme Court noted last week, the abortion bans do directly violate an individual person's ability to make their own decisions regarding their health. | ||
| And I think that's a big issue here is whether people have that right to make their own decisions. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| Senator Murray. | ||
| Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of our witnesses. | ||
| Look, it is really clear to me that this hearing is not about science, and it's certainly not about women's health. | ||
| I know folks would like to try and pretend otherwise, but that's about as convincing as saying RFK Jr. saying he's not against vaccines. | ||
| Republicans can throw a lot of rhetoric around here, but their long anti-abortion track record is too painfully clear to hide. | ||
| We all know the real motivation behind this hearing. | ||
| Republicans don't like abortion. | ||
| They want to ban abortion nationwide, but they know that is not popular. | ||
| They know the American people won't stand for that. | ||
| So Republicans are doing the next worst thing and chipping away at abortion access with every tool they can in every way they can think of and hoping Americans won't notice. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| People tend to notice when their rights go away. | ||
| People tend to notice when politicians force them to stay pregnant. | ||
| And people tend to notice when you turn their life upside down. | ||
| So we're not going to let these attacks on abortion slide, not a single one of them. | ||
| We're going to call them out for what they are, and we're going to keep fighting for women's reproductive freedom every single time. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Murray. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Just a few things to clean up. | ||
| My staff was able to confirm that in North Carolina, the health of the mother is an exception in which abortion would be allowed. | ||
| So just to say that. | ||
| Secondly, Dr. Verma suggested that in Louisiana, if somebody is having a miscarriage, that they do not have access to these drugs. | ||
| That's incorrect. | ||
| Specifically, it says that if somebody is having a miscarriage, there is access to the legitimate use of these drugs in compliance with the law. | ||
| So that's incorrect. | ||
| Also, by the way, there's some common ground here. | ||
| There was a lot of criticism of what Dr. Ubenhorst was quoting by Dr. Verma, but I think both sides want to have a safety review. | ||
| And Commissioner McCarry promised us a safety review. | ||
| And so if the issue is, no, this is not accurate, well, then let's do the safety review. | ||
| I think there's common ground there. | ||
| I think there's common ground on a couple other things, believe it or not. | ||
| Specifically, it was mentioned that telemedicine would be important. | ||
| But what Attorney General Murrill says, this is not telemedicine. | ||
| These are people filling out forms online. | ||
| Implicitly, Dr. Verma and others would agree that's not appropriate. | ||
| I gather, not for Dr. Verma, but apparently for most LBs, it's standard of care to do an ultrasound if there's an issue of a miscarriage. | ||
| And so that should be done. | ||
| There should be some information. | ||
| And I was impressed with what Dr. Marshall said about the inaccuracy of the reported last minstrel period. | ||
| And so just kind of the statement online, that just seems unlikely. | ||
| Secondly, there was, or next, there was also standard of care as regards the need to have medical records. | ||
| And Dr. Verman mentioned how important that was. | ||
| But Attorney General Mural pointed out that the doctor in California was coaching the patient on how to deny that she had been given a medication. | ||
| Senator, if I could just say, aid accesses paperwork says that to everyone. | ||
| It has a whole paragraph in it that says lie to the hospital if you need help. | ||
| And so there should be common ground that that information should, that they should not be telling patients to lie to their doctor. | ||
| That that is not good. | ||
| Now that said, I have no illusions that we'll find common ground on everything. | ||
| But if our common ground turns out to be there should be telemedicine, actual human contact, and that people should not be told to lie to the doctors, then maybe something will come out of this despite the polarization. | ||
| With that, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record statements and letters from Live Action, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Students for Life, Restoration of America Foundation, Liberty Council Action, and the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs expressing concern with the harmful effects of chemical abortions. | ||
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Watch Live House Coverage
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| Unanimous consent requested and granted. | ||
| For any senator wishing to ask additional questions, questions for the records will be due 5 p.m. Wednesday, January 28th. | ||
| Thank you all for being here. | ||
| And the committee stands adjourned. | ||
| Thank you, buddy. | ||
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I am in France. | |
| I'll look now at Thursday's live coverage on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| Watch live coverage of the U.S. House starting at 9 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| Representatives will consider legislation to change retirement investment standards. | ||
| At 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2, the U.S. Senate will work on a House-passed spending package to fund several federal departments, including the Commerce, Energy, Interior, and Justice Departments through September 30th. | ||
| Funding for most of the federal government will end on January 30th. | ||
| And at 9.30 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from Lieutenant General Francis Donovan about his nomination to be general and commander of the U.S. Southern Command. | ||
| Among his responsibilities would be overseeing operations in Venezuela. | ||
| Lieutenant General Joshua Rudd will also testify to be general and director of the National Security Agency, Chief of the Central Security Service, and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command. | ||
| Watch live coverage of these events also on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and our website, c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Friday, on C-SPAN's Ceasefire, at a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, Republican New York Congressman Mike Lawler and Democratic New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer come together for a conversation on the top issues facing Congress as both parties prepare for the upcoming midterm elections. | ||
| Join host Dasha Burns. | ||
| Bridging the Divide in American Politics. | ||
| Watch Ceasefire Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| On Saturday, we'll have live coverage of the inauguration of Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, along with Lieutenant Governor-elect Gazala Hashmi and Attorney General Elect Jay Jones. | ||
| From Richmond, Virginia, watch live at 12 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app and online at C-SPAN.org. | ||
| Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series. | ||
|
I Kept It Secret
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Sunday with our guest Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate, Rita Dove, who has authored several collections of poetry. | |
| Don't think you can forget her. | ||
| Don't even try. | ||
| She's not going to budge. | ||
| No choice but to grant her space, crown her with sky, for she is one of the many, and she is each of us. | ||
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She joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein. | |
| Did your teachers say, well, look, poetry is not a big career future. | ||
| You should write prose. | ||
| Did they people tell you that or not? | ||
| You say, I didn't even know that it was something that you could do and live with your life. | ||
| I thought that, and I was writing poetry from the age of 10, I guess, but it was always a secret thing. | ||
| It was a thing that I wrote and thought, okay, this is my secret. | ||
| It was my thing that I enjoyed. | ||
| I didn't realize that a little black girl could become a poet. | ||
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Watch America's Book Club with Rita Dove. | |
| Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| On Capitol Hill, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer spoke about Republicans' plans to hold former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for refusing a subpoena related to the Epstein files. | ||
| Well here we are again. | ||