Sarah Toce
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), spoke on the Senate floor following introduction of her resolution which expresses the sense of the Senate that every patient has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care, regardless of where they live.
Murray’s speech touches directly on new reporting from ProPublica that makes plain that Republican abortion bans are preventing women from receiving lifesaving emergency health care and resulting in preventable deaths.
“Here in America, in the 21st century, pregnant women die, not because doctors don’t know how to save them—but because doctors don’t know if Republicans will let them,” said Murray in her floor speech. “Make no mistake—this is the policy outcome Trump and Republicans moved heaven and earth to achieve.”
Murray continued, “Let’s be clear, providing emergency stabilizing care is the bare minimum to keep a patient alive. These women may have undergone tremendous trauma and suffering up until they meet the threshold for emergency stabilizing care. It shouldn’t have to get to that point! Women shouldn’t have to lose organ function before they can get medical care… I am not going to stand for that. This will not become a new, accepted normal.”
Watch Murray’s full remarks below.
Murray further stated, “Democrats are going to continue telling these women’s stories. We are going to continue pressing to fully restore reproductive freedoms for every woman in America. We are going to continue to put a white-hot spotlight on the devastating, deadly fallout of Republicans’ extreme anti-abortion policies—of Donald Trump’s abortion bans, and on the cruel callousness Trump has offered in response—never missing an opportunity to gloat about overturning Roe v. Wade. Women and families are listening to him gloat. They won’t forget.”
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade over two years ago, nearly two dozen US states led by Republicans have passed, banned, or severely restricted access to abortion. These strict laws have created confusion around the treatment doctors can provide even when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger, as physicians fear that they may lose their medical license, be sued, or even charged with a felony if they perform life-saving emergency care.
Despite the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act’s (EMTALA) requirements that Medicare-participating hospitals treat and stabilize pregnant patients in need of emergency medical care, women are being turned away from emergency rooms following the Dobbs decision.
In Moyle v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court had the opportunity to reaffirm that federal law requires pregnant patients to have access to life-saving emergency care in every state, but instead, the Court dismissed the case and sent it back to the lower courts, effectively punting on making a decision on the case itself. While the litigation continues in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the health and lives of women remain at risk as uncertainty around emergency abortion care persists. 121 Congressional Republicans, including 26 Senators, filed an amicus brief arguing that EMTALA does not require hospitals to provide abortion care as emergency stabilizing care in order to save a patient’s life.
Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and she has led Congressional efforts to fight back after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; Murray has led efforts to push for passage of these bills on the floor multiple times.
Murray also co-leads the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide. This January, Murray led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans. On June 4th of this year, Senator Murray chaired a HELP Committee hearing titled, “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America.”
Recently, Murray also helped lead efforts to force Republicans on the record on votes to protect access to contraception and access to IVF (twice). Murray has also led her colleagues in raising the alarm about how a second Trump administration intends to wage an all-out assault on reproductive rights and abortion access in every state, as outlined in Project 2025.
Senator Murray’s full floor remarks as delivered are below:
“I rise today to speak about a new resolution that I introduced, which reaffirms the basic principle that when you go to the ER, they should be allowed to treat you. When your life is in danger, doctors should be able to do their job. When you need emergency care—including an abortion—no politician should stop you from getting it. This is so simple.
“And yet when President Biden and Vice President Harris tried to make that clear Republicans worked to stop them—opposing the basic notion that—yes—ER doctors might have to provide emergency abortion care to save a woman’s life.
“Make no mistake, we are talking about women whose water breaks dangerously early, or who are experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhage, sepsis, or pre-eclampsia. These are the patients we are saying doctors should treat under the basic right to emergency care. These are the women Republicans don’t think deserve access to emergency care.
“I don’t know where on the long path of anti-abortion extremism that saving lives became a bridge too far for so many Republicans—but that is where we are. It’s not just an extreme position—it is a very dangerous one and it is a deadly one.
“There are so many tragic stories about how Republican abortion bans are hurting women. Those stories include women who have been unable to get an abortion after a pregnancy became bad for their health, unable to get one after the situation had become a medical emergency, unable to get one until the only option was a hysterectomy that totally ends their dream of having a child one day, and in some heartbreaking cases—women have been unable to get an abortion until it is too late.
“They have died, they have died because Republican bans denied and delayed the care they needed.
“Just this week, we have heard the stories of two Black mothers who lost their lives in Georgia due to the state’s draconian abortion ban. According to a report from Pro Publica—in 2022, after Georgia’s six-week abortion ban went into effect, a pregnant woman went in to the ER—she was a single mom.
“She had a serious infection and needed a ‘D-and-C’—a routine procedure, and the standard of care for her condition. Her case was not a mystery.
“But even if it was clear that a D-and-C would save her life, it was not clear her doctors could provide that without facing legal danger under the state’s abortion law. Her condition worsened. Her blood pressure dropped. Her organs started failing. And by the time she got the procedure–19 hours after she arrived at the ER—it was too late. Tragically—she died.
“The state’s medical review committee concluded there is a “good chance” that she would have survived if the procedure had happened sooner. Her name was Amber Thurman.
“Another Black woman in Georgia died without ever seeking medical care—she was too afraid to see a doctor given ‘the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.’ The state’s medical review committee also found her death to be preventable. A heartbreaking outcome for the three children she left behind. Her name was Candi Miller.
“How can that be the status quo in our country in the 21st century? How is anyone okay with that? How does anyone think these extreme abortion bans are a good idea? How does anyone oppose clarifying that women have a right to emergency care? Don’t we want our hospitals to saves lives?
“And how can anyone look at this wreckage, how can you hear the stories from doctors who are wracked with guilt for decisions Republican politicians made for them? How can you hear the stories from women who have bled, suffered, and nearly died—how can anyone hear the chilling accounts of women who HAVE died? And shrug it off? And say: ‘Well I am sure this will blow over.’ ‘Well I’m sure it’s not so bad.’
“And yet—we have Republicans by-and-large just trying to ignore this, just trying to get everyone to whistle past the graveyard they spent decades digging.
“As if a woman would ever in her life forget the time her doctor said yes she is in danger, yes they know how to treat her, but no they can’t do it—politicians won’t let them.
“As if a mother would ever forget losing her daughter because she was denied care. As if a husband would ever forget losing his wife. As if a kid growing up without a mother because she was denied emergency abortion care will ever—for a single day of their life—forget it.
“We have Republican-led states hearing from providers about how completely unworkable and dangerous their bans are—and not really lifting a finger to meaningfully address the problem.
“We have states where people are trying to put it to the voters—trying to let the people have their say on these bans—and Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail to block them.
“And we have Donald Trump still—after all that has happened saying everyone wanted Roe overturned, that’s what he said! Everyone wanted Roe overturned? Who is he listening to? Saying it’s great states can cause this chaos—it’s great politicians can effectively lock patients out of the emergency room.
“Make no mistake—this is the post-Roe world Republicans spent decades fighting for. This is the policy outcome Trump and Republicans moved heaven and earth to achieve.
“And they make that clearer and clearer every time they not only refuse to lift a finger to stop it, but Republicans even filed a brief telling the Supreme Court, essentially ‘No, we DON’T think doctors should be required to provide abortion care when a patient’s life is at stake.’ When a patient’s life is at stake!
“If Republicans thought—even in the slightest—that this is a problem, they could start by co-sponsoring our resolution saying it’s a problem. That should not be too hard of a step! Let’s see who takes me up on that offer. I am waiting to see.
“M. President, when I think about the carnage Republican abortion bans have caused, I truly cannot put my outrage into words. But I can be here and I can share the horror stories I am hearing here on the Senate Floor. I can give voice to the patients and providers who are living this nightmare firsthand.
“Dying women being turned away from an emergency room, being left to bleed out—left to grow sicker, left to miscarry on their own. The lucky ones—the LUCKY ONES—get air lifted to a state like mine where abortion is legal and protected.
“By July of this year, one hospital in Idaho—next to my state—had already airlifted six pregnant women out of the state for emergency abortion care. And the unlucky ones—died. We must not look away from that hard reality.
“Here in America, in the 21st century, pregnant women die not because doctors don’t know how to save them, but because doctors don’t know if Republicans will let them.
“We have a maternal mortality crisis in this country, and these bans are making it worse. We are moving in the wrong direction.
“And to Republicans who have the gall to talk about exceptions for the life of the mother—while arguing against abortion as emergency care, even when it is life-saving—what do you think emergency care is for? What do you think emergency care is for?
“And let’s be clear, providing emergency stabilizing care is the bare minimum to keep a patient alive. These women may have undergone tremendous trauma and suffering up until they meet the threshold for emergency stabilizing care. It should never have to get to that point! Women shouldn’t have to lose organ function before they can get medical care. They shouldn’t have to bleed out in a parking lot. They shouldn’t have to miscarry on their own. Their husband shouldn’t have to find them bleeding and unconscious, and call 911 in a panic.
“This is what is happening.
“I am not going to stand for that. This will not become a new, accepted normal. Democrats are going to continue telling these women’s stories. We are going to continue pressing to fully restore reproductive freedoms for every woman in America.
“And we are going to continue to put a white-hot spotlight on the devastating, deadly fallout of Republicans’ extreme anti-abortion policies—of Donald Trump’s abortion bans, and on the cruel callousness Trump has offered in response—never missing an opportunity to gloat about overturning Roe v. Wade.
“Women and families are listening to him gloat, M. President. They’re not going to forget.”
