Senator Murray: “Republicans want to force women to stay pregnant, but they won’t lift a finger to help new parents.”
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s questioning***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Budget Committee, attended today’s Budget Committee hearing titled “No Rights to Speak of: The Economic Harms of Restricting Reproductive Freedom.” Senator Murray highlighted the economic harm abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive care have on the American economy, and the financial burden it places on women and their families—specifically calling attention to Republican policies that force women to stay pregnant even as Republicans oppose policies that would support moms and kids like a national paid leave program, major investments to ensure child care is accessible and affordable, and even programs like WIC to keep young moms and babies fed and healthy.
At the hearing Dr. Caitlin Meyers, an applied microeconomist and professor at Middlebury College, discussed her research showing the positive economic impacts on women of expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care. An amicus brief Dr. Meyers submitted to the Supreme Court alongside 153 other economists in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization highlights how abortion legalization has had a significant positive impact on women’s wages and educational attainment and large, positive effects on women’s labor force participation, occupations, and earnings—effects that were particularly strong among Black women. According to her research, young women who utilized legal abortion to delay an unplanned start to motherhood by just one year realized an 11% increase in hourly wages later in their careers.
“I’m really glad that we are here today to talk about something that doesn’t get enough attention—and that is the strong connection between reproductive rights and economic security,” said Senator Murray. “When Republican politicians take away a woman’s control over her own body, they are also taking away women’s ability to plan their families, their finances, and their futures on their own terms. The connection is more painfully clear than ever in the post-Dobbs America, where your ability to get an abortion depends on where you live, and whether you can afford to travel out of state.”
“Republicans’ anti-abortion extremism doesn’t just mean forcing women to stay pregnant, ultimately it often means women forced out of the workforce, and into financial hardship—with no support to speak of,” continued Senator Murray. “Here we are—where Republicans want women to stay pregnant, but they don’t want to address the child care crisis. They want to force women to stay pregnant—but today, House Republicans want to not fully fund WIC. Republicans want to force women to give birth, but they don’t want moms to have paid leave so they can recover from childbirth and spend time with their newborn.”
“So it’s pretty clear that Republicans want to force women to stay pregnant, but won’t lift a finger to help new parents,” said Senator Murray as she concluded her opening remarks. “I want you to know that Democrats are working hard to help make sure women are able to decide when and how they start a family—and we actually support those programs that families need. That is a pretty big difference to me.”
Senator Murray began her questioning by asking Mrs. Allie Phillips, a reproductive rights advocate from Tennessee, about the financial barriers women face when seeking abortion care. Mrs. Phillips was forced to leave her home state of Tennessee to seek an abortion in New York after her doctor diagnosed her baby with multiple life-ending diagnoses that put her own health at risk. Murray asked Mrs. Phillips, “Can you talk… about the financial barriers that are out there for women who seek abortions such as you had to do, through no want in your life, but because that is what happened to you? And what that meant to you and your family when you were forced to go out of state all alone?”
“Pregnancy is not a one-size-fits-all situation, every pregnancy is different. Every reason to need an abortion is different,” said Mrs. Phillips. “This was a planned for and wanted pregnancy and unfortunately for us, it wasn’t in the cards for us to bring that baby into the world. As a low-income family… I was a single mom for the first three years of my daughter’s life. I took two weeks off of work when she was born—unpaid—and had to go back because I didn’t have any other option but to work to take care of my child. I actually started the in-home daycare in my home to be home with Miley because we couldn’t afford the infant childcare—which is about another mortgage payment in the state of Tennessee. Without the platform that I had online and without sharing my story—and thank God it went viral when it did—because without the help of complete strangers, I would not have made it to New York. I don’t know if I would be sitting here today talking to you,” said Mrs. Phillips.
Next, Murray asked Dr. Caitlin Meyers, Ph.D., a Professor of Economics at Middlebury College, about the disproportionate impact that abortion bans have on women of color, worsening long-standing inequities in access to quality care: “Can you talk about how abortion bans and restrictions have created new financial burdens for women—especially women of color?”
“Every single study of which I am aware that isolates and measures the effects of abortion restrictions on people’s lives finds that women of color experience greater effects of those restrictions, experience those restrictions as greater barriers than non-Hispanic white women,” replied Dr. Meyers. “The reasons are complex. Women of color, particularly Black women, have higher rates of unintended pregnancy—that’s driven by lower access to contraception, lower rates of insurance, more likely to live in contraceptive deserts. Also, race and poverty interact in complex ways that create greater financial barriers of traveling, taking time off work, accessing child care for women of color. We often see much greater effects on that population.”
Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and, after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade, Murray has led Congressional efforts to fight back. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks. Murray co-leads the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide, and has been leading Congressional efforts to make over-the-counter birth control affordable and to protect access to mifepristone.
Senator Murray is also a champion for policies that help working people start and grow their families while strengthening our economy—from child care to paid leave to strong federal nutrition benefits.
A former preschool teacher herself, Senator Murray has led the fight to comprehensively tackle the child care crisis in Congress—using every tool at her disposal to make progress for families as the top Democrat on the HELP Committee and now as Senate Appropriations Chair. She continues to work to build the support needed to pass her Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need.
From the moment she arrived in the Senate, Senator Murray has been a leading champion in Congress to deliver on paid leave. After working to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which guaranteed unpaid family and medical leave for all workers when she first arrived in the Senate, Senator Murray has been working nonstop to make a national paid leave program a reality. Murray is a leader on the Healthy Families Act and has been a top advocate for the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act to finally guarantee paid family, medical, and caregiving leave to workers across America and ensure workers can take care of themselves and their families.
As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray is pushing to fully fund WIC, even under tough fiscal constraints—and Murray has long been a champion of strong nutrition benefits for families in need. Recently, Murray announced that Washington state will participate in a new, permanent summer grocery benefits program for children that she got passed into law, known as the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT).
Below are Senator Murray’s full remarks at the top of her questioning at today’s hearing:
“Since Republicans overturned Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights have really been under attack like never before in our country.
“And I’m really glad that we are here today to talk about something that doesn’t get enough attention—and that is the strong connection between reproductive rights and economic security.
“Because when Republican politicians take away a woman’s control over her own body, they are also taking away women’s ability to plan their families, their finances, and their futures on their own terms.
“The connection is more painfully clear than ever in the post-Dobbs America, where your ability to get an abortion depends on where you live and whether you can afford to travel out of state.
“Can you take the day off? Can you afford transportation? Do you have a place to stay? Do you need child care?
“Mrs. Phillips just described all of that that happened to her. And there is a deeply cruel irony faced by women who are unable to get an abortion because of cost—women who are forced to stay pregnant by Republican politicians.
“If someone cannot afford to get the health care she needs, what do they think is going to happen when she is forced to have that child? How will she make ends meet?
“Republicans’ anti-abortion extremism doesn’t just mean forcing women to stay pregnant, ultimately it often means women forced out of the workforce, and into financial hardship—with no support to speak of.
“Here we are—where Republicans want women to stay pregnant, but they don’t want to address the child care crisis. They want to force women to stay pregnant—but today, House Republicans want to not fully fund WIC. Republicans want to force women to give birth, but they don’t want moms to have paid leave so they can recover from childbirth and spend time with their newborn.
“So it’s pretty clear that Republicans want to force women to stay pregnant, but won’t lift a finger to help new parents.
“I want you to know that Democrats are working hard to help make sure women are able to decide when and how they start a family—and we actually support those programs that families need.
“That is a pretty big difference to me.”
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