VIDEO: Kaine Delivers Speech on Senate Floor After Introducing Bipartisan Legislation to Codify Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate regarding the Reproductive Freedom For All Act, legislation he introduced this afternoon with Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Susan Collins (R-ME), to enact the essential holdings of Roe v. Wade and related cases into federal law, protecting a woman’s right to abortion and contraception. The legislation would undo the damage of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and would enshrine into law the fundamental right to reproductive freedom.

Broadcast-quality video of the Senator’s speech is available here.

During his remarks, Kaine spoke about the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. Kaine said, “I could give many examples of, even in the month since that decision has been rendered, of the tragedy of what I believe is now post-Dobbs America. In particular, when a 10-year-old child has to be smuggled across state lines to receive care following her rape—that is gruesome. That is not what this country should expect nor indeed what we should tolerate. And yet that's not an accidental by-product of the Dobbs decision. That was a completely foreseeable and even foreseen consequence of the Dobbs decision, that turning it over to 50 states would lead to a patchwork of horrible examples, one after the next.”

Kaine continued, “Every person in this country, no matter what zip code they live in, should have a basic federal guarantee about contraception and the availability of abortion services.”

“I believe the Dobbs decision and what we've seen since is a catastrophe that, as it plays out over time in state after state, will also change the dynamic in the Article I branch and demonstrate the need for a national protection for reproductive rights,” said Kaine. “So it is in that spirt that my colleagues and I have introduced this bipartisan bill today demonstrating that there’s now bipartisan support and majority support in the United States Senate to protect reproductive freedom for all.”

More information regarding the legislation is available here.

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