Feinstein Remarks on Necessity of Access to Abortion Care

Washington—Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today spoke on the necessity of access to abortion care and giving women control over their health care decisions. In addition to her remarks below, Senator Feinstein also submitted a statement for the record.

            Video of the remarks is available here.

            “I think this is really one of the most difficult subjects that women in this life of elected office face because we’re all familiar with our past when we were young.

            For me, I remember at Stanford passing a plate so that a young woman could go to Tijuana for an abortion. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen today. But we’ve got a long way to go to understand.

            It’s my understanding that some 700 women a year in this country die in pregnancy-related complications. That means each decade 7,000 women in America die as a result of childbirth.

            So this is a very complicated picture as to why women need abortions. And it’s not always what the popular thinking is. It can be very, very medically a problem.

            Ms. Christensen, I want to thank you for being here. I can imagine how hard this is for you, but I think your testimony was extraordinarily important because it’s real.

            I don’t think we can avoid the scourge of having one of the highest maternal death rates in the developed world in this country.

            So I very much regret that abortion has become such a political issue. I believe very strongly that we should control our own bodies in connection with our faith and medical ethics.”

###