WATCH LIVE: Senate Dems Get Earful On How Losing Abortion Rights Has Harmed Women. They're Probably Not The Ones Who Need It!
Watch now on Yr WonkTV!
With the anniversary of Roe v. Wade coming up next Monday, Senate Democrats will be briefed by experts today on “the state of abortion rights in America, the chaos and cruelty of state abortion bans, and the need to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act,” which would enshrine the protections of Roe in US law. After hearing from the experts, the senators will be able to ask them questions, and we assume that calling this a “briefing” rather than a “hearing” means no Republican senators will be there to stink up the place with dishonest garbage about abortions “up to the moment of birth.”
The briefing is being co-hosted by Senators We Like including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada), Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), Patty Murray (Washington), Debbie Stabenow (Michigan), and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts).
The Democratic senators will hear from three witnesses who know more about the post-Roe hellscape than anyone should have to:
Jessica Valenti, who writes the indispensable Abortion Every Day newsletter that we link to all the time. She stays on top of everything somehow.
Dr. Austin Dennard, DO, an osteopath from Dallas, Texas, who’s one of the plaintiffs in Zurawski v. State of Texas, the federal lawsuit by providers and by women who’ve been harmed by Texas’s abortion law. The suit seeks to force the state to clarify when its seemingly arbitrary “exemption” actually protects the life of a patient in emergency conditions, which Texas keeps refusing to do. “Just try it and find out” is not a guideline for physicians. (Update/clarification: Dr. Dennard is speaking primarily as a patient, but also as a physician. She was blocked by Texas from ending a nonviable pregnancy, and had to go to another state. She also practices as an OB-GYN.)
Dr. Serena Floyd, the certified OB-GYN who serves as Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC (PPMW). She’s also a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH).
Here is your livestream; the briefing and Q&A should get underway at 10:00 Eastern and run through 1:00 PM.
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Will update to note that Dr. Dennard is speaking primarily as a patient, not as a physician. She practices as an OB-GYN, but was herself blocked by Texas from ending a nonviable pregnancy, and had to go to another state.
For what it's worth, I had an abortion when I was 19. It was the right choice.