Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The MAGA Republican Nationwide Abortion Ban

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Senate Republicans introducing a radical nationwide abortion ban, similar to ones the majority of the caucus has supported in the past, after insisting that the Supreme Court Dobbs decision would mean abortion would be left to the states. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Yesterday was truly a tale of two parties. While one party—the Democrats—gathered at the White House to celebrate the passage of our job-creating agenda, the other party—the MAGA Republicans—spent their day introducing a nationwide ban on abortions. If the American people want to know what the differences between the two parties are, look no further.

One party is focused on jobs, that’s us! The other is focused on nationwide abortion bans. That’s the extreme MAGA Republicans!

One party wants to lower inflation and help families make ends meet, to tackle the generational challenges we face, and has passed major legislation to that effect, now law.

The other party wants to eliminate women’s autonomy over their own bodies.

Here’s how you know Republicans are dangerously out of touch: months after women had their freedom of choice taken away by the MAGA Supreme Court, a nationwide abortion ban was actually their attempt to seem more mainstream.

Can you believe it? To seem more mainstream! Heaven help us. Heaven help us. It shows just how extreme they are.

The core problem is that far from being mainstream, a large portion of the Republican Party harbors truly extreme views on a woman’s right to choose.

In the few months since the Dobbs decision, Republican state legislatures in places like Indiana and South Carolina and others have either introduced or enacted new abortion restrictions with alarmingly few exceptions of rape or incest.

In this chamber, Senate Republicans spent years confirming judges hostile to freedom of choice, including three sitting Supreme Court Justices who joined with the majority in overturning Roe. And the then-majority leader, now-minority leader, Leader McConnell, has repeatedly said his greatest accomplishment is putting these judges on the Court. His greatest accomplishment, putting judges on the Court who overturn Roe v. Wade? Do the American people want that? I don’t think so.

And for all the hemming and hawing we heard yesterday from Republicans about where they really stand on the issue, they cannot run away from their record.

Setting aside yesterday’s proposal, the fact is that 45 Senate Republicans—including Leader McConnell—remain co-sponsors of another nationwide abortion ban previously introduced by the Senator from South Carolina.

Leader McConnell himself told USA Today earlier this year that without Roe, proposals for a nationwide ban on abortions were now “possible”—his words—“possible” if Republicans controlled the Senate.

Do the American people want that? Do they want Leader Mitch McConnell to be Majority Leader and work to impose a nationwide ban on abortions? I don't think so. Now they're sort of running away from what their real beliefs are, but they're like the dog that caught the bus. For years they pushed to make this happen. Unfortunately, to the detriment of over 100 million American women, it happened, and now they don't know quite what to do. They're not backing off their horrible MAGA principles, but they want to hide from it at the same time because they know how unpopular it is.

And to show you just where the party is at, almost immediately after the Court overturned Roe, Mike Pence – former Republican Vice President, now running for President possibly in 2024 – said Republicans “must not rest” until abortion is illegal everywhere. That means a nationwide ban. That doesn’t leave it up to the states. In fact, he doubled down on this just last night, saying a national abortion ban is “is profoundly more important” than Republicans’ short-term interests. That’s one of the leaders of the Republican party, which has moved so far to the right that even that someone like Vice President Pence—who doesn't always go along with Trump—feels compelled to take that extreme position.

And lest we forget, folks, nearly every Senate Republican, nearly every Senate Republican already voted to push national abortion bans in 2020, in 2018, and 2015. During one of these votes, the Senator from South Carolina, who introduced the nationwide ban again yesterday, said “These pieces of legislation will continue to be advanced until they pass.” 

How do we know that Republicans will put a national abortion ban on the floor if they control the Senate? Not only has Senator Graham committed to doing it – they have done it before, three times, and they will do it again, if they get the majority. America beware. America beware.

So the truth is not hard to grasp. Republicans do not care about leaving abortion in the hands of the states. No way. They do not care that a majority of Americans supported Roe and support abortion rights.

What MAGA Republicans care about, deep down, is eliminating freedom of choice across America, period. And they are already at work, right now, on legislation, as we heard yesterday, that will take us down that terrible, terrible path.

Well, it’s my view that the American people aren’t going to be fooled by Republicans’ desperate attempts to seem mainstream. You cannot fake your way through an issue so personal and so important as a woman’s right to make her own health care choices. They're not going to be able to run and duck and bob and weave and tie themselves in pretzel knots. Everyone knows where they're at. Senator Graham made it clear again yesterday, and people will know the Republican view: abolish abortion everywhere. That’s not going to change, no matter what some on the other side might think.

###