00:00And Senator Richard Blumenthal, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.
00:05Senator.
00:08Thank you so much, Representative Takano.
00:12You know, I have been in this fight since Roe was approved by the United States Supreme Court.
00:22Before I became a father, before I became a grandfather.
00:25And now, this fight is very personal to me and to all of us, having two sons who are veterans.
00:35One, a Marine Corps combat infantry officer in Afghanistan, the other is a Navy SEAL,
00:41who believes strongly, as I do, as you do, that women's rights are human rights.
00:50But women's reproductive health care is health care in this country.
00:58There's no getting around that basic fact of life unless you are Collins and Trump.
01:08And you want to roll back the clock and revert.
01:13And that's the word they use.
01:14We're going to revert to a prior rule.
01:16Well, there was a time in this country when no women served in the military.
01:21That's where this administration wants to go.
01:23There was a time in this country when no women received VA health care.
01:30That's where this administration wants to go.
01:33There was a time in this country that no veteran received health care.
01:37They want to go back.
01:39And this is another step in reverting, rolling back, reversing progress.
01:44Progress, we are not going to let them do it.
01:48We're going to fight it first with the comment that we submitted.
01:53More than 230 of our colleagues joined us.
01:5842 from the Senate.
01:59And then, if they are cruel and stupid enough to adopt this rule, we'll fight it on the floor of the United States Senate with a congressional resolution that says you can't trample on reproductive care in the United States for our women veterans.
02:20A congressional review act is privileged.
02:30It has to be voted on.
02:32Memo to Majority Leader Thune.
02:35We're going to get a vote.
02:36And we're going to win that vote, I think, because all of our Democrats and I hope all of our Republicans will be in favor of it.
02:44There should be no partisanship when it comes to women's health care rights for veterans.
02:51Now, you know, this idea that someone has to be on the verge of death to receive life-saving care is absolute cruelty.
03:09And it is so stupid as to defy any logic.
03:16Any medical person, any person will tell you that waiting until death is literally imminent means risking life.
03:27That's what we're doing through this rule.
03:29It literally endangers and risks life for hundreds of thousands of veterans.
03:36How many veterans?
03:37To be exact, 462,000 veterans, women veterans across the United States, 2,600 of them in Connecticut.
03:49Their lives are put in danger.
03:52Their futures are on the chopping block.
03:55Their choices are denied.
03:58And let's be very clear-eyed and blunt.
04:00Sexual assault in the military is still rampant.
04:03Victims of sexual assault in the military become pregnant.
04:06And then they are discharged.
04:08And then they are veterans who will bear the child of their assailant if they are denied this kind of care.
04:18That is absolutely repugnant to any sense of fairness or justice.
04:25And here's something else to consider.
04:27Women in prison, women in prison, who are covered by the Hyde Amendment, actually have more rights than women veterans.
04:37Yes.
04:38Because this proposed rule says that even if you are a victim of rape, you're going to be denied reproductive care and abortion rights.
04:52And if you're in those states that make abortion illegal, which is about half of all the women veterans, 232,000, you can't get an abortion anywhere that's close to you.
05:09So, a woman in prison has more rights because she can get reproductive care if she's raped than a woman veteran who is denied it under this proposed rule.
05:25That is absolutely unacceptable to anyone in this great country.
05:34So, I am determined to fight this proposed rule.
05:40It has not received the attention it deserves.
05:45What it really deserves is to be abandoned, as I hope it will be, because we're going to fight it even before it's a final rule.
05:56The comment period ends today.
05:59From this day forward, make no mistake, we will fight it in the Congress, we'll fight it in the courts, we'll fight it anywhere that's necessary to preserve a woman's right over her own body.
06:14And protect a woman from the effort of this administration to make them victims of their culture wars.
06:25The VA used to be above politics.
06:27The VA used to be a place where people would go and receive health care based on their needs.
06:36They've served and sacrificed for their country.
06:38They have fought for this right.
06:41The VA is breaking its promise.
06:46It's betraying a trust.
06:49And we can't allow it to happen.
06:51I thank all of the veterans who are here today, all of the advocates.
06:55You are a formidable picture.
06:57And I want to thank all my colleagues from the House for being here and say how grateful I am as a veteran, but as a dad and a grandfather, that we are fighting hard for women's reproductive rights.
07:12Thank you all.
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