Reactions continues to pour in from Massachusetts lawmakers in response to a new report that appears to show that the U.S. Supreme Court is ready to overturn the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision Roe V. Wade. Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark joined GBH Morning Edition hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel to discuss the draft opinion and what it means for the country. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Jeremy Siegel: So, Congresswoman, you wrote this morning that overturning Roe would create a dystopian reality, and quote, “we will not go quietly.” What do you mean by that — that you won't go quietly? What, if anything, are you and your Democratic colleagues planning at the moment in response?
Katherine Clark: Well we are on the verge of a dystopian nightmare. We are going to see forced pregnancies in states that will change their laws to criminalize abortion, to make no exceptions for rape and incest, or for the health of the mother. This is the stuff that we had feared the most: this complete control of the most intimate and personal decisions of a woman's life being given to those in control of state governments.
And so what we are seeing is for women, this is a rollback of our fundamental rights. It is the Republican Party's goal, and it always has been to control our lives. The irony, the hypocrisy that this court — that said voting rights need to be restricted — are now turning this same control over women's lives back to those states. This is a dystopian nightmare playing out in front of us.
Alston: Congresswoman, last year, the House passed the Women's Health Protection Act, which aims to ensure reproductive rights nationally through congressional action. Now, the Senate has not passed that measure. What would make that happen? And if this Supreme Court decision goes through, what would this legislation do to add a check and a balance to that?
Clark: The thing that we have to do is put our focus on the midterms. We have a chance to take back our country, to protect our democracy, to restore voting rights, to restore equality. Equality and justice for all has never sat well with the GOP, and they have put a strategy together to erode those rights. Today, it is reproductive freedom. Tomorrow, it will be gay marriage. The next day it will be economic opportunity. The playbook is there, and what we have to do is organize like our democracy depends on it and vote like our lives and freedoms depend on it, because that is exactly where we are in this country.
"What we have to do is organize like our democracy depends on it and vote like our lives and freedoms depend on it, because that is exactly where we are in this country."- MASSACHUSETTS CONGRESSWOMAN KATHERINE CLARK
Siegel: Beyond voting, what is that next step, Congresswoman? What do you and your colleagues in Congress do here?
Clark: We are going to push the Senate to pass statutory protections for women. But what we have seen is that we simply don't have the votes to overcome the filibuster in the Senate. And what does that mean for real families around this country? It means that women are going to have to make the most fundamental decisions — not with their family, their doctor or in accordance with their faith — but by the rules set down primarily by white men in their state houses. And this is going to have a rippling impact not only on their control over their own families and their reproduction, but on their access to housing, their access to jobs, their ability to feed and care for their families.
We are at a precipice here where we are having a Supreme Court that is about to rule that it is okay to force a 14-year-old girl who is the victim of rape to have a child. We have to think about where this is in the context of our country, of the everyday impact on women around this country, and what that means for all of us. So, yes, we are going to look at a range of options around the Supreme Court, and around legislation that can protect women from this decision. We have the midterms just a few months away, and what we need in Congress is more people who will stand for democracy and equality.
Alston: Congresswoman, you mentioned some of the decisions that everyday women are going to have to make if this decision does go through. And you've been open about your experience of having a miscarriage that required removal of fetal tissue that could have caused a fatal infection for you. How could we see that unravel for people who may not have the same acces, or the same means, if this decision goes through?
Clark: That is such a good point, because we know that abortion care in any circumstances is probably going to remain available for women who have the financial means and access to be able to travel to a state where it will remain legal. And like all other oppressive acts, it is going to have the greatest impact on low income women and communities of color, where those choices simply aren't available.
So this is going to have a real effect on the lives of women across this country, but never more so than in the states where these rights will be immediately rolled back, and where people who already have a hard time finding access to health care face impossible barriers because of the expense and the travel that would be necessary. This is about everyday Americans. As we are coming out of this pandemic and trying to rebuild an economy where women can see themselves in it and have opportunity, this is such a devastating blow to the progress that we have made and to our quest to form a country that is rooted in equality and justice for all.
