Hi, this is Senate Democratic Leader Melissa Agard with this week’s Democratic Radio Address.
Earlier this week, Republican Speaker Robin Vos said that he’d consider rape and incest exceptions to our state’s archaic criminal abortion ban – ONLY if women and girls had first filed a police report to prove they were a victim of sexual assault or incest.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 77% of sexual assaults are not reported to police. And now Republicans are suggesting that legislators, law enforcement officers, and judges be in the doctor’s office with survivors of assault, controlling which health care procedures a person may access.
This radical proposal is problematic for a number of reasons, but the bottom line is women and girls should not have to jump through hoops to access basic medical care. After enduring one of the most traumatizing experiences of their life, survivors should be supported, not required to recount this gruesome event with local authorities.
We must empower survivors of sexual assault and incest and restore their decision-making power, not restrict their bodily autonomy. The Republican attacks on the rights of pregnant people are relentless. They’re anti-freedom, anti-science and anti-women.
